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X 



j[y16,1883. 



Price, fi5 Cents. 



No. 93. 




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Copyright, 1883, by TvsK & Wasnalls. 
Entered in New York Post-Office as leoond-class mail matter. 



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WINTER IN INDIA. 

By the Rt. Hon. W. E. BAXTER, M.P. 

This is the last, and the best, of a number of most charming books of travel by the 
Hon. Mr. Baxter, who took many journeys in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. By 
the aid of this book we can accompany him through his winter tour in India. He in- 
troduces us to strange scenes, curi9us incidents peculiar alone to India, and obtains for 
us a vast fund of information and facts concerning a country which is likely to call 
upon itself more notice from the world than any other country on earth. Its great an- 
tiquity, its vast resources of wealth of various kinds, and its ancient lore, make it un- 
rivalled. England and America, both their merchants and scholars, especially, must ever 
be deeply and more deeply interested in India. Mr. Baxter tells his thrilling story in 
such a pure, simple styl« that readers of all ages will alike enjoy it. His position as 
an English statesman is a guarantee of the reliability of its every statement. 



W.E, 
Baxter 




Funk 

& 

Wagnalls 



E^RLIKR NTJM:BE5RS. 

PAXTON HOOD'S LIFE OF CROMWELL. No. 80, Standard Library (No. 1, 
1883 Series). Price, 25 cents. 

SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.S.A., 
F.C.S. No. 81, Standard Library (No. 2, 1883 Series). Price, 25 cents. 

AMERICAN HUMORISTS. By R. H. Haweis. No. 82, Standard Library 
(No. 3, 1883 Series). Price, 15 cents. 

LIVES OP ILLUSTRIOUS SHOEMAKERS. By William Edward Winks. 
No. 83, Standard Library (No. 4, 1883 Series). Price, 25 cents. 

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. Br Thomas Gibson Bowles. No. 84, Standard 
Library (No. 5, 1883 Series). Price, 25 cents. 

THE HIGHWAYS OF LITERATURE ; or. What to Read and How to Read. 
By David Pryde, M.A., LL.D.. F.R.S.E., F.S.A., etc. No. 85, Standard Libkahy 
(No. 6, 1883 Series). Price, 15 cents. 

COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. A Record of a Summer. By Grant Allen 
No. 88, Standard Librauy (No. 7, 1883 Series*). Price, 25 cents. 

THE ESSAYS OF GEORGE ELIOT. Complete. Collected and arrnnged, with 
an Introduction on her '"Analysis of Motives." Bv Nathan Sheppard. No. 87, 
Standard Library (No. 8, 1883 Serie?). Price. 25 cents. 

AN HOUR WITH CHARLOTTE BRONTE ; or, Flowers from a Yor. htre 
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Price, 15 cents. 

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NATURE STUDIES. Bv Grant Allen, Andrew Wilson, Thomas Foster, 
Edward Clodo, and Richard A. Proctor. No. 91 Standard Library (No. 12, 
1883 Series). Price, 25 cents 

INDIA. WHAT CAN IT TEACH US? By Max Muller. No. 92, Standard 
Library (No. 13, 1883 Series). Price, 25 cents. 



WINTER IN INDIA. 



BY 



THE ET. HON. W. E. BAXTEE, M.P. 



A a' 




NEW YORK: 

FUNK & WAGNALLS, Publishers, 

10 AND 13 Dey Street. 



Puhlisliers' Note to the American Edition. 



>S 



M^ 



This book was recently published in England. It is being eagerly read by the j 

intelligent English people, partly because of the celebrity of its distinguished 
author, and partly because of the intimate and important relations between the 
two countries. It will be found, we believe, equally popular with American 
readers, not only because they are fond of books of travel and adventure, but also 
because they are already interested in India, and must become more and more so \ 

as the immense resources of that vast and wonderful country become developed. : 

The author seems to have taken deep interest in the religious and educational 
condition of India, as well as in her material resources. Consequently he visited j 

mission stations, missionaries, schools, and colleges, and gives his impi-essions of < 

the work they are accomplishing^. Opinions on these subjects, coming from such ; 

a source, are truly valuable ; indeed, considering the character of the author as a \ 

statesman, and his relation to the British Government, they are not less than semi- i 

~ \(d. 
We have added to the value of the book by making an index to it. 

New York, June 25, 1883. 



3^^ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by 

FUNK & WAGNALLS, 

In the pffce of the Librarian of Congress at Washinstcm, D. C. 



^^o mg QSifc: my 



COUKAGEOUS COMPANION 
DURING MANY JOURNEYS IN EUROPE, ASIA, 
AFRICA, AND AMERICA : THESE LEAVES FROM 
MY INDIAN JOURNAL 

ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Chap. I.— The Voyage Out, 9 

II.— Bombay : The Rajpootana Railway, . . 19 

III.— Delhi and Lahore, 28 

IV.— Agra and the Taj Mahal, .... 40 

V. — LucKNOw AND Cawnpore, 49 

VI. — Allahabad and Benares, 56 

VII. — At Calcutta, 67 

VIII. — The Tea Plantations, Darjeeling, . . 74 

IX.— Calcutta : Its Buildings, Trade, and Life, 85 

X. — Southern India : Madras ; Coonoor, . , 93 

XI. — CONJEVERAM: DEPARTURE PROM MADRAS, . 103 

XII.— At Poona, .... . . . .109 

XIIL— Return to Bombay, . . . . . .123 

XIV.— Departure from Bombay, 127 

XV. — On the Indian Ocean, 135 

XVI.— The Suez Canal ; Home, 143 



A WINTER IN INDIA. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE VOYAGE OUT. 



Again we are on the move, and this time for a more 
extended tour even than that which we so much en- 
joyed through Egypt and Syria. 

"We have taken eight first-class and two second-class 
return tickets in the P. and O. steamers to India. 

On the 2d November, 1881, our old friend the Wave 
took us across the Channel ; the Belgians politely passed 
our baggage at the frontiers without examination, and we 
remained all night at the Grand Hotel, in Brussels, situ- 
ated between the two railway stations, thus avoiding 
the usual climb to the top of the hill. 

Next day we went on to Coblentz, passing by in the 
morning hundreds of fields, from which the peasants 
were busy removing beet-root to the sugar factories. 
At Herbesthal the German custom-house officers, 
'^ dressed in a little brief authority," made themselves so 
unpleasant in rummaging our valises that I considered it 
my duty to write in the evening to the proper quarter 
complaining of their conduct. At Cologne we had an 
hour to look at the cathedral, the towers of which are 



10 A WIIfTER IN IJS^DIA. 

now completed. The Hotel Belle Yue, at Coblentz, 
commands a fine view of Ehrenbreitstein and the draw- 
bridge across the Rhine, the latter crowded with passen- 
gers and vehicles, and opened every few minutes to 
allow steamers and barges to pass. We spent the next 
night at the clean, bustling, thriving, and picturesque 
town of Wurtzburg, having crossed the '' blue Franconi- 
an moimtains," and on the following day passed over an 
uninteresting plain to Munich, remaining all Sunday in 
the Hotel of the Four Seasons. 

On Monday morning we were provided with a hand- 
some saloon carriage, in which we travelled all the way 
to Venice. In some parts of the Bavarian plain the 
peasants were making hay, which I certainly had not 
seen before in November. The weather hitherto had 
been very cold, but fortunately we had a lovely day to 
cross the Brenner Pass, and I never saw the glorious 
scenery of the Tyrol, the noble entrance to the Inn val- 
ley, its startling peaks, gorges, and precipices, to such 
advantage. Then there was a bright moon to lighten 
the valley of the Adige, and enable us to walk as if by 
day to the Grand Hotel at Trent, where we spent the 
night. 

On the following day we had four hours at Yerona, to 
get luncheon and see the place, and it was very late 
before we reached the City of the Waters, as a locomo- 
tive had broken down at Peschiera, detaining the train 
from Milan. How bright and beautiful is Yenice, and 
what a contrast between its stirring appearance now and 



THE VOYAGE OUT. 11 

the dead city under Austrian domination which I knew 
in 1844: ! 

At 10 A.M. on 11th IS'ovember we went on board the 
P. and O. steamer Mongolia, Captain Thompson, 2883 
tons, lying in the Guidecca ; and the first person that 
addressed me on the deck was Sir A. H. Layard, who 
has a house in Yenice, and who was seeing off another 
old friend of mine, Sir W. Gregory, formerly member 
for Gal way, and more recently Governor of Ceylon. 
We had likewise on board Mr. Kowsell, once head of 
the Contract Department at the Admiralty, and now one 
of the Commissioners of the State Lands in Egypt, with 
his family ; and I soon found out among the passengers 
several gentlemen connected with Eastern commerce 
whose reputation and firms I knew. The Mongolia was 
very high in the water, and as we *' slowed " down the 
Lido passage into the Adriatic, I thought 1 had never 
seen anything so beautiful of their kind as the varied 
views of Yenice from the sea. By nightfall we were 
off Ancona, burning blue lights on the port bow ; and 
so calm was the sometimes stormy guK that by 1 a.m. 
on Sunday we were standing in and out at Brindisi, 
waiting for the pilot, who was in bed. The ship is 
manned chiefly by natives of the East, who go under 
the general designation of Lascars, most o£ whom come 
from the islands and headlands to the north of Bom- 
bay, and we have a considerable number of passengers 
on board for Australia. The Kev. Mr. Mitchell, of 
Sydney, conducted divine service in the saloon after we 



12 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

had finished the dirty operation of coahng. I never saw 
a more squalid, filthy, rickety-looking place than the 
ancient Bnindusium ; but it has a good harbor, and 
probably at some future time it will be more inviting to 
the traveller. 

At two o'clock on Monday morning the train came in, 
wearied railway passengers rushed into the cabins, and 
very soon heavy rolHng warned me that we were once 
more on the Adriatic. When I went on deck in the 
morning, Otranto, on the Italian coast, was in full view, 
and opposite, crowned with snow, appeared the lofty 
mountains of Albania. Passing Cape Matapan, dis- 
tinctly visible though 30 miles off, we had run 289 miles 
at noon, and until we got under the lee of Crete the good 
ship plunged so much that many of the passengers were 
sick for four or five hours. 

"Wednesday was a lovely day, and when I reached the 
deck at sunrise on Thursday, in the lurid light on the 
eastern horizon there could be plainly seen a dim object 
familiar to me — the Pharos of Alexandria. The usual 
din and scramble took place when the steamer stopped in 
the inner harbor ; but we did not require to land in 
boats, as the P. and O. Company have now got a wharf, 
and the railway carriages come down to the steamer's 
side. For an additional payment of £1 ($4.84) each, 
we shared with others a large saloon carriage, and regret- 
fully saying good-by to the Mongolia^ were soon pass- 
ing between Lake Mareotis and the Mahmudieh Canal, 
among fields of cotton, maize, rice, and reeds ; camels, 



THE VOYAGE OUT. 13 

buffaloes, and naked Arabs reminding us of former 
times. 

This is Thursday, 17th November, 1881, and on the 
same day of the week and month in 1869 was opened the 
: Suez Canal— a monument of French enterprise and sa- 
gacity which England's short-sighted statesmen had so 
long and so fooKshly opposed. 

The rascals charged us four shillings each for a very 
so-so lunch at Kafr Zayad, and we were not sorry when 
the hot and dusty journey terminated at Suez at 9 p.m., 
and we were nshered into the saloon of the steamship 
Surat, Captain Breeze, 3142 tons, where all that the P. 
and O. Company could provide for weary and hungry 
passengers was a supper of very bad and tough cold 
meat. 

The luncheons of that generous corporation are cold ; 
and although the order, and especially the cleanliness, on 
board are all that can be desired, a company that charge 
so high and enjoy so large a subsidy from Government 
should supply better fare and provide faster steamers. 
There is nothing to prevent the service between London 
and Bombay being shortened by at least three days. 

The xSW^^a^, although she performed admirably while 
we were on board, has been rather an unfortunate ship, 
and has met with a good many mishaps. In 1875 we 
saw her disabled and being towed in the Suez Canal, and 
this voyage her engines stopped five times in the Bay of 
Biscay, so alarming the passengers that they applied to 
the captain of the port and Lord Kapier of Magdala at 



14 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

Gibraltar for an independent examination of the machin- 
ery, greatly to the indignation of the chief engineer and 
of the captain. "We consequently found by no means a 
happy family on board, and we heard much of their ex- 
periences and grievances during the passage. 

Next day we were going thirteen knots with a fresh 
northerly breeze between the magnificent serrated peaks 
which hide Sinai from view, and the almost equally 
striking mountains on the African coast. We met six 
steamers going up to Suez. The ship is full, there 
being one hundred and thirty first-class passengers, whose 
easy-chairs cover the quarter-deck. 

Passing Shadwan Island, where the P. and O. steam- 
ship Carnatic was lost, we leave the Gulf of Suez, 
and, seeing the entrance to the Gulf of Akaba on the 
left, pass into the Red Sea, or, as it should be called, 
the Sea of Sea- weed, the Hebrew word for the two being 
the same. A wreck standing well out of the water re- 
minds us of the dangers of its navigation. The moun- 
tains on both sides are much grander than I imagined, 
and, as we proceed, those on the African shore present a 
most remarkable appearance, as if cut into gigantic steps. 
We have volunteer music on deck every evening at 8.30 
— piano-playing, songs, and glees. 

Saturday, 19th, was quite calm. "We are out of sight 
of land, but pass the solitary light on the shoal where 
H.M.S. Daedalus was lost. I am surprised at the num- 
ber of people on board going, like ourselves, merely to 
travel in India, and not on official duty or commercial 



THE VOYAGE OUT. 15 

business. The tliermometer has stood steadily at 80°. 
Now the temperature rises. At eight o'clock on Sunday 
morning it was 86° in the shade on the companion, and 
few people had been able to sleep from the heat. At 
10.30 A.M. all hands were mustered in their Sunday dress 
on the quarter-deck, and at 10.45 a young chaplain 
going out to Delhi conducted divine service. 

The color of the Ked Sea is a lapis -lazuli blue. Our 
run was two liundred and ninety-four miles, and at 
3 P.M. the tliermometer in the shade registered 95°, and 
very little walking was done on deck. Small sails were 
put out from each cabin window, to make a draught, 
and the punkahs in the saloon were kept hard at work. 
ITot a rock, or a steamer, or a light-house was to be 
seen. 

On Monday the Surat had a very unusual experience, 
namely, a strong head-wind, a tempestuous sea, and 96° 
of heat in the shade. Most people were motionless, and 
looked very miserable. The ports had all to be closed, 
and ladies slept on the saloon table and all about the 
place. We were shipping such heavy seas that the cap- 
tain had to slacken speed during the night. In the 
evening we passed the Island of Jebeltur, and here the 
navigation is not a little ticklish. 

There are two other Members of Parliament on 
board, going to see India — my friend Mr. Hamilton, of 
South Lanarkshire, and Mr. Johnson, who represents 
Exeter. We have a considerable number of British 
officers returning from furlough, men of large experi- 



16 A WIN^TER IlSr Iiq^DIA. 

ence and cultivation ; and I am happy to find that most 
of them are by no means Jingoes, and that some who 
approved of the Afghan expedition are now convinced 
that it was a terrible mistake. A friend tells me that 
he went home recently with twenty-eight officers of the 
Cabul force, twenty-five of whom informed him that 
they approved of the evacuation of Candahar. 

"We are now in full sight of the Arabian coast, with 
Mocha in the distance, a strong wind dead ahead. The 
Straits of Babel Mandeb, or " The Gate of Tears"— so 
called from the number of wrecks that have taken place 
on that desolate shore — are fourteen miles wide, and the 
Island of Perim, on which flies the British flag, lying 
right in the channel, commands the entrance to the Bed 
Sea. It is only two miles distant from a very striking 
promontory on the Arabian coast, and we ran through 
that narrow passage, meeting the steamship City of Agra 
under full sail going north, and two other steamers also 
taking advantage of the wind just outside on the Indian 
Ocean. 

By 11 P.M. we were at anchor in the wonderful harbor 
of Aden, but the noise made by coaling, and by the 
naked Soumali boys diving for coins, prevented much 
sleep. When I came on deck I found it crowded with 
natives selling ostrich -feathers, baskets, and other articles. 
"We were anchored between a French man-of-war and 
the P. and O. steamer Assam, from Bombay. The 
Italian gunboat Chioggia passed up harbor under our 



THE VOYAGE OUT. 17 

stern, and bj and bj tlie great P. and O. steamer 
Ne^aul arrived from Calcutta. 

Aden surprised me ; it is as fine as Gibraltar, and has 
a splendid anchorage. The wild barren rocks and peaks 
dotted over with white houses present a singular appear- 
ance, and it is a much more imposing place than I had 
imagined. We lay there till nearly ten o'clock on 
"Wednesday morning, and might have gone ashore, but 
a placard announcing that the ship was to sail at 5 a.m. 
prevented us. The cantonments, which are five miles 
from the harbor, can be seen very distinctly from the 
sea after leaving. 

Lofty mountains in Arabia were visible all Wednesday 
afternoon and Thursday morning. I learned to-day that 
in the Ked Sea on Sunday the thermometer in the stoke- 
hole was 154:°. We have several excellent artists on 
board, and people who fall asleep in ungraceful attitudes, 
especially when they are not prepossessing, find them- 
selves immortalized in sketch-books. 

On Monday night the quarter-deck was decorated 
with flags, and we had a ball, which was kept up for 
several hours. At 2.30 a.m. on Tuesday I happened to 
look out of my port-hole, and there, in all its glory, just 
above the horizon, was the Southern Cross ; and cer- 
tainly my feeling on seeing it for the first time was by 
no means one of disappointment. 

Between six and seven o'clock I went to the bow, and 
saw the land — peaks in the Ghauts on each side of Bom- 



18 A WINTER IN- INDIA. 

*bay. The color of the water is changed to a light dirty 
brown ; a row of fishing-boats stationed right in the way 
of the navigation — why, I don't know, nor it appears does 
any one else — are on the starboard ; and right ahead, one 
by one begin to appear the spires and factory chimneys 
of the city. 



CHAPTER II. 

BOMBAY — THE RAJPOOTANA RAILWAY. 

Before nine we had taken the pilot on board, and 
then the Surat wound her way up one of the finest har- 
bors in the world, the capaciousness and grand scenery 
of which took me quite by surprise ; and as soon as she 
dropped anchor a steam-launch came alongside with a 
letter from the Viceroy in camp, welcoming me in the 
kindest and most cordial terms to the shores of India ; 
and another from the Governor of Bombay, to take our 
party ashore if we desired it. We landed, however, in 
boats provided by business correspondents. The noise, 
scramble, and heat were what the Americans would call 
'' a caution." 

Stepping ashore at the celebrated quay called Apollo 
Bunder, the evening resort of the beauty and fashion of 
Bombay, we drove at once to the Cumballa family hotel 
on Cumballa Hill, a quiet villa which has the advantage 
of a northern aspect and breeze. This Orient is quite 
dijfferent from that which I had seen before ; nearly all 
the trees are new to me, and excepting the poinsettias 
and bougainvilleas, I do not recognize the flowers. The 
houses are bungalows, and the manners and customs 
of the strangely-attired, or rather non-attired, natives 



20 A WINTER Ilf Iiq-DIA. 

strongly impress on ns that our time is six hours earlier 
than that of Greenwich. 

I was not prepared for the magnificence of the view of 
the city and its surroundings from Malabar Hill — the sea 
of palms, the noble public buildings, the bays and creeks, 
the peaked and dome-shaped Ghauts ; it has a resem- 
blance to the Bay of [Naples, but there is more variety, 
and the mountains are farther off. At night there were 
marriage festivities in the neighborhood, music and fire- 
works, preventing some of the party sleeping until the 
small hours. 

On the top of Malabar Hill, and within sight of our 
windows, are the Towers of Silence : a walled cemetery 
where dead Parsees are devoured by vidtures ; and you 
see those hideous creatures gorged and sleepy on every 
tree. 

We had a most delightful excursion in the afternoon 
in a steam-launch, one hour from the harbor to the cele- 
brated caves of Elephanta ; and the beauty of the sunset 
on the bay, peaks and islands, port and shipping, can 
never be forgotten. Then in the evening some of us 
were entertained to dinner in the Yacht Club. It is a 
fine airy erection on the Apollo Bunder, now called the 
"Wellington Pier, so well ventilated that punkahs are not 
required ; and everything was served just as it would be 
in the " Carlton" or '' Keform." 

The stranger is struck with the great number of police- 
men stationed along all the streets and roads, who touch 
their hats to every sahib who passes ; and the crowds of 



BOMBAY— THE EAJPOOTAlirA RAILWAY. 21 

servants in every house and comiting-house, moving 
noiselessly about like shadows, impress a European. 

It is a very pretty drive to the Government House at 
the farthest point of Malabar Hill, past innumerable 
bungalows of merchants and officials — Scotch names 
greatly predominating — the strange trees and flowers re- 
minding one forcibly how far he is from home. 

We dined in one of these sumptuous villas, and the 
appetit was the fitful glare from Hindoo bodies being 
cremated on the other side of the bay. Notwithstand- 
ing the howling of the jackals, we had music and song 
before returning home in the moonlight. 

I experienced considerable difficulty next day in ar- 
ranging both about travelling servants and money ; and 
it is no joke walking along the streets of the Fort under 
a burning sun, even although your head is protected by 
a pith helmet ; but then we are rewarded by the glori- 
ous view of mountains, bay, and shipping from the res- 
taurant on the quay : I never saw anything of the kind 
more lovely. 

The municipality of Bombay is partly elective and 
partly nominative ; the majority are natives, and they 
manage economically and well. I observed how care- 
fully kept, repaired, and watered are all the thorough- 
fares. 

It is impossible to convey in a few sentences of descrip- 
tion anything like a vivid idea of this strange Bombay. 
The mixture of splendid public buildings and hovels, 
sumptuous bungalows cheek-by-jowl with wigwams, car- 



22 A WINTER IJS" IKDIA. 

riages and ox-carts, men with bare feet sitting in brough- 
ams attended by liveried servants, shops full of nearly- 
naked people, women flitting about in garments of daz- 
zling brightness, with jewels in their noses, bracelets on 
their ankles, and rings on their toes ; tramways, cotton 
bales, bheesties pressing water out of their pigskins to 
lay the dust ; people of every nation, kindred, and 
tongue. More than 700,000 souls crowded in narrow 
lanes form a tout ensemble which to be realized must be 
seen. 

The traveller in India has to provide himself with 
quilts and pillows, for use both in the railway carriages 
and in the dak bungalows or houses provided for the ac- 
commodation of travellers. With this addition to our 
baggage we mingled with a motley crew in Grant Road 
Station, waiting for the mail train which had started 
from the harbor half an hour before, on Saturday even- 
ing, December 3d, at 5.30. 

It soon became dark, but in the bright moonlight we 
could see pretty well around. The line crosses from the 
Island of Bombay to the mainland by a very long via- 
duct, and there are a great many other bridges over 
various arms of the sea. Before turning in for the 
night, we ^ame in view of a fine range of peaked moun- 
tains, and were soon reminded, in our endeavors to 
draw our quilts more closely around us, that it is now 
no longer excessively hot, but on the contrary rather 
cold. 

The first thing I saw when day dawned was a troop of 



BOMBAY — THE RAJPOOTANA RAILWAY. 23 

hng6 monkeys making faces at the train, running up 
trees, and turning somersaults for our edification. 

At Ahmedabad we had a good breakfast, and changed 
into the carriages of the narrow-gauge Rajpootana State 
Railway. This interposition of a line of different width 
between the other great railroads in India appears to me 
to be a blunder, and one which must eventually be 
remedied, no matter what may be the cost. 

During the forenoon we passed through fields of 
maize, rice, cotton, and castor-oil, separated by cactus 
hedges, and saw many large herds of cattle and buffaloes. 
The peasants were very busy ploughing and irrigating ; 
most of them were nearly or quite naked, and inhabited 
miserable-looking huts. There were raised look-out 
posts, sometimes on a frame-work, sometimes on a tree, 
here and there, with watchers to prevent the deer, boars, 
monkeys, and other wild animals damaging the crops. 
The station-houses and the dwellings of the better class 
have all white domes like mosques. 

During this day and the following morning I saw more 
wild creatures, four-footed and winged, than I ever saw 
during the same period in all my life — deer and monkeys 
of various sizes and kinds, cockatoos innumerable, blue- 
jays, flamingoes, storks of the most graceful appi.arp'^.ce, 
partridges, jungle- fowl, doves, and water-birds in endless 
variety — nowhere in India is there finer shooting than in 
Eajpootana, as well in the jungles as in the desert, of 
both of which we had samples during our journey. 
Toward evening we passed between two very striking 



24c A WINTER IIS- INDIA. 

ranges, that of Mount Aboo on the left being 5000 feet 
high ; and we had a glorious sunset illuminating their 
jagged peaks. 

Did not we bless th^^ promoters of the narrow-gauge 
line duiing the hours of darkness ? A night on the Baj- 
pootana State Eailway ! "What a reminiscence ! To 
roughlj-made carriages was added a bad locomotive- 
driver, and the jerking, pitching, and rolling overtask 
my feeble powers of description. The water-cistern in 
our saloon carriage was broken, my clothes were hurled 
on the sloppy floor, holding on for dear life was impos- 
sible, because there was nothing to hold by. I got up 
to put the quilt over me, and was banged head foremost 
against my vis-a-vis. JS^atives yelled at our ears the 
names of every station, and it was not till day dawned 
beyond Ajmere that we got a little broken rest. This 
was our first experience of luxurious railway travelling 
in India ; many times I tried, Christian-like, to laugh, 
but it seemed much more natural and easy to do the 
other thing. 

At Phalera junction in the early morning I got out 
for a cup of tea, and was amazed to be addressed on 
the platform by Mr. Primrose, private secretary to the 
Viceroy, formerly my private secretary at the Treasury, 
who had joined the train during the night. Truly 
thankful we were after forty-two hours' shaking on that 
dreadful line to take refuge in the dak bungalow at Jey- 
poor. Colonel Bannerman, the Political Resident at the 



BOMBAY — THE RAJPOOTANA RAILWAY. 25 

Maharajah's capital, had arranged it for our reception, 
and sent carriages to meet us at the station. 

It is a square bungalow in the centre of a compound. 
There are reed huts for the &3rvants on one side, and on 
the other tents, in case of an overflow of guests, remind- 
ing us of our life in Palestine. 

Attended by a gorgeous man in red, we called on the 
Kesident in his beautiful villa in the neighborhood, and 
then drove through the extraordinary town of Jeypoor — 
a mixture of Orientalism and European innovation hard 
to describe. There are broad streets ; houses, higher 
than usual, all painted pink ; a vast palace, half a mile 
long and eight stories high; a well 1 aid-out and beauti- 
fully-kept public garden, in which the dons of the city 
were taking their evening ride ; runners to warn the 
crowds in the streets of the approach of the sahibs ; 
monkeys scrambling over the housetops ; bheesties mak- 
ing the water squirt in every direction — altogether it 
was like a scene in the Arabian Nights. 

We had a quiet dinner in the bungalow ; there was 
an eclipse of the moon in that glorious starlit sky, and we 
said good-night amid a howling of the jackals far more 
deafening than any we had experienced in Egypt. 

The stranger is struck at this time of year by the 

withered and burnt -up appearance of the whole country. 

Yast tracts on the plains are covered wdth the graceful 

pampas-grass, which is collected for purposes of thatching. 

A large party had assembled at the Residency to 



26 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

dinner, consisting chiefly of oflicers from Bombay, who 
had come up to enjoy the sport of pig-sticking ; and we 
had much conversation on many interesting points con- 
nected with Indian affairs. 

The air next morning was quite frosty, and I felt even 
an ulster insufficient to keep out the cold, as w^e set off 
in carriages at a hand-gallop to visit Amber, the old 
capital of the state : a most extraordinary place, situated 
in a hollow, the lofty hills surrounding it being fortified 
somewhat in the fashion of Yerona. After a drive of 
four miles, we found elephants waiting us, and had our 
first experience of riding in a howdah. I thought the 
motion more unpleasant, but not so difficult for a tyro, 
than that of being on the back of a camel. 

From various points on the roof of the Maharajah's 
palace we obtained very remarkable and extensive views 
of the surrounding country. 

The Rajpoots of old were freebooters and thieves, 
like the Scottish chiefs, and their towns had to be built 
for purposes of defence. 

During our absence one of our servants saw the exe- 
cution of a dacoit, who was brought out of the town in 
an ox- cart, and strung up close to the gate of the bun- 
galow. The carriages and elephants have all been placed 
at our disposal by the Maharajah. 

Several successive rulers of Jeypoor have been enlight- 
ened, reforming men. The beautiful Mayo hospital, 
the water-supply to the town, and the irrigation works 
in the vicinity are some of the monuments of good gov- 



BOMBAY — THE KAJPOOTANA RAILWAY. 27 

eminent in tin's little state. There are about 100,000 
inhabitants in the capital, which is commanded by the 
Tiger Fort, on the top of a loftj hill. 

While I was sitting- in the veranda of the bungalow, 
in the afternoon, I was surprised and pleased to receive 
a visit from the Rev. John Traill, a Brechin man," who 
has been nine years connected with the United Presby- 
terian Mission in Rajpootana, and who, I afterward 
learned, is not only respected by the whole European 
community, but is such a favorite among the natives that 
all classes delight to receive and listen to him. 

Shortly after eight o'clock on Thursday morning we 
were off again on the State Railway ; and although the 
travelling was certainly much smoother than between 
Ahmedabad and Ajmere, it was by no means what it 
ought to be, and 1 cannot find any one hereabouts who 
has now a good word to say for the metre gauge. It is 
what the Americans call an air line, or nearly straight, 
as far as Bandikui, passing partly over great grassy 
wastes, inhabited by deer and parroquets and peacocks, 
and partly through fields of grain and cotton, the former 
of which the peasants were busy irrigating from numer- 
ous wells. 

The only town of any importance on this route is 
Alwur, with 50,000 inhabitants, the capital of another 
Rajpoot state. 



CHAPTER III. 

DELHI AND LAHORE. 

And now I write in Delhi, the ancient capital of the 
Great Mogul, historically celebrated in many ways, and 
the scene of events in the Mutiny of 1857 which shook 
the British dominion in Hindostan to its very base, and 
horrified and excited the wliole civilized world. Sixty- 
six officers and eleven hundred men fell in that terrible 
final assault, which once more vindicated our supremacy 
over a population of 300,000,000, and enables Queen 
Yictoria now to grant patent of accession to no fewer 
than one hundred and fifty -three native princes. 

We have plucked a leaf from that banyan-tree inside 
the fort where twenty-seven Europeans were massacred 
in cold blood ; and we have wondered and admired in the 
lovely private audience-hall — a garden of roses on one 
hand, and on the other the river Jumna, with the great 
railway -bridge. It is a pavilion of white marble, which 
once contained the famous Peacock Throne, where the 
puppet emperor resided during the siege, and where the 
Prince of "Wales received in durbar the magnates of India. 
The ladies' apartments are now the officers' mess-room, 
and the audience-chamber of Shah Jehan has been con- 
verted into the canteen of the British force ! 



DELHI AKD LAHORE. 39 

Since the Mutiny, all tlie buildings near tlie fort — 
whicH itself is one and a quarter miles in circumference 
— liave been demolished, and the space has been laid out 
in walks and trees. We entered it by the Lahore Gate, 
where there is a row of native shops, for the benefit of 
the soldiers — *' Ram Sing, tailor," etc. — and left it by 
the Delhi Gate, where the walls are seventy feet high, 
and covered with parroquets, and near which are the 
comfortable-looking quarters of the married European 
troops. The officers have elegant and commodious- 
looking quarters in the centre of the ground, which is 
tastefully laid out, and strikes one as a most desirable 
abode. 

Close to the charming Hall of Audience, with its rich 
inlaid- work and transparent marble tracery, is the little 
mosque of Moti-Musjid, or the Pearl Mosque, a perfect 
gem of wliite marble with black lines, which bring into 
relief the exquisite work on the walls. How plain and 
grand it all is ; how different from the ornaments of 
Roman Catholic cathedrals ! This was built by no wor- 
shippers of images, but believers in the doctrine that 
there is one God. 

On the city side of the open space which detaches the 
fort stands the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in 
India, with two lofty minarets ; one of which we 
ascended, and had a most magnihcent view of Delhi and 
its neighborhood. In and around that building in 1857 
assembled 40,000 men to pray for success to the rebel 
armies, and there, on Friday, 9th December, 1881, we 



30 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

saw two or three thousand Mussulman worsliippers bow- 
ing in the direction of Mecca ; not south-east, as we had 
seen them do before, but north-west, within sound of 
the British bugles and in the presence of a few wander- 
ing travellers, chiefly Scotch, come out to view this won- 
drous land. 

A very handsome museum and literary institute has 
been erected at one end of the Queen's Gardens, and the 
railway terminus close by is one of the most conspicuous 
buildings in the city. 

Our drive on Friday evening was of a very interest- 
ing and almost exciting character. The British Com- 
missioner, Major Young, was good enough to accom- 
pany us, and explain in most graphic language, on the 
ground, the principal events of the siege and storming 
of Delhi by a handful of British and Sikh troops in 
1857, 

We first visited tlie Cashmere Gate ; this and the ram- 
parts on each side are left unrepaired, exactly in the 
same state as they were when Nicholson's forlorn hope 
saved the British Empire in Hindostan ; then we as- 
cended the famous " ridge" from which there is a view 
of the city, a good deal like that of Damascus from the 
mountain : to a certain extent commanding it, but sepa- 
rated from it by narrow guUies, which the mutineers 
made use of to annoy the British force. On the highest 
point has been erected a monumental pillar to the 
memory of the brave men who performed one of the 
most remarkable exploits in history. The inscription on 



DELHI AND LAHORE. 31 

its base tells a tale of valor which has never been ex- 
celled. 

The whole besieging force amounted, to 9866, the 
casualties were 3854 ; the First Bengal Fusiliers had 
427 men before the city, of whom 319 were hors de 
comhat. 

^ ' Delhi must be taken, ' ' wrote Sir John Lawrence, 
from the Punjaub. *' The thing is impossible, we have 
not force to do it," w^as the commander's reply. What 
must have been the feelings of one of the most humane 
and tender-hearted of men, in the full knowledge of the 
terrible sacrifice of vakiable life involved in his rejoin- 
der, when that rejoinder was, " Delhi mtcst he takeiiy 
He knew better than any man then living the attitude of 
the Sikhs, the magnitude of the crisis, and the absolute- 
necessity of the fall of the ancient capital ; and that re- 
iterated order saved India to England, although it did 
not prevent the man who issued it being hooted by a 
London crowd, because he did not approve of the recent 
war in Afghanistan. 

The population of Delhi was, and is yet, disarmed, 
because by no means well-affected to our rule ; and con- 
sequently game abounds in all directions round the city. 
One would never imagine, looking down from the 
" ridge," that a great mosque, a red fort, two station 
towers, and a few low minarets rising among gardens, 
represented a city of 160,000 inhabitants. 

The debatable land between the Cashmere Gate and 
the Memorial Tower is now covered with villas and wide 



32 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

avenues, and the Nicholson Gardens, overlooking the 
Jumna, occupy a considerable portion of it. 

It was bitterly cold when at eight o'clock on Saturday 
morning we drove out of the Ajmere Gate over a dusty 
plain covered with tombs, reminding one of the Eoman 
Campagna and the Appian Way. The modern Delhi is 
comparatively new ; centuries ago there were cities on 
that flat. 

Our destination was the Khotub Minar, the highest 
pillar in the world, two hundred and 'thirty-eight feet 
above the ruined Hindoo temples and Mohammedan 
mosques at its base, and eight hundred and sixty years old. 
It is a wonderful and very imposing structure, of red 
sandstone outside, and inside of white granite. The 
ascent is laborious, and did not repay me, for one sees 
nothing but a dreary, tomb-covered, dusty plain. Here, 
as in many other places, we were mobbed by beggars ; 
there is, indeed, dire poverty in this land ; the squalor, 
emaciation, and dirt are sometimes appalling. 

We spent rather a dismal Sunday, two of our party 
being ill : principally in consequence of the miserable 
accommodation and cooking at the Northbrook Hotel. 
I was attracted by the name, and outside it looked well 
enough ; but altogether it answered to the scriptural de- 
scription of awhited sepulchre. 

The hotels in India are hardly worthy of the name ; 
few British travellers visit it, and they nearly all stay 
with the officials ; ours is the first family party that 
ever went up country, and we of course have to pay in 



DELHI AKD LAHORE. 33 

many little discomforts the usual penalty of pioneers of 
progress. 

I write now in Clark's Hotel, at Lahore — a little 
whitewashed bungalow some distance outside the city, 
with one lofty stable-like public room in the centre, and 
half a dozen square vaults as bedrooms opening out of it, 
three at each side ; but here the landlady is an English- 
woman, the victuals are tolerable, and sanitary arrange- 
ments are well attended to. 

We left Delhi at mid-day on Monday, 12 th Decem- 
ber, and were detained half an hour at Ghazabad Junc- 
tion waiting for the Calcutta train. There is much 
sandy and sterile land in this neighborhood, and we saw 
some large herds of deer, but as you approach Meerut 
city and cantonment the country improves. The stations 
are prettily adorned with convolvulus and other flowers, 
and all the short time we have been in India we have 
been struck everywhere with the good roads. Our 
friends at home have little idea how far behind they are 
in this respect, some of our leading lines of communica- 
tion being simply disgraceful. 

After a good dinner in the refreshment-room at Suha- 
runpore, we made all snug for the night, and did not 
get up until within sight of the minarets of the famous 
mosque at Amritsir. 

Passing close to the camp of Meean Meer, with its 
numerous tents and elephants, we reached the imposing 
fortress-looking station of Lahore at 8.30, and found 
waiting us two carriages sent by Lady Egerton, wife of 



34 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

the Governor, lie himself being absent in camp. One 
of them was a lofty drag seated for ten and drawn by 
four camels, a postilion dressed in the bright scarlet of 
the paramount power riding on each. 

In this singular vehicle, which sometimes attained the 
rate of ten miles an hour, we drove round the city after 
breakfast, through the Lawrence Gardens ; there, joined 
to each other, are the Lawrence and Montgomery Halls ; 
there is also a collection of wild animals ; and in various 
directions past the college are seen courts of law and 
other public buildings. 

The British residents all live outside the city, in sepa- 
rate bungalows of more or less pretensions, and have their 
names written in large letters on the entrance-pillars. 
The European shopkeepers do the same. On the side of 
a wide avenue, beneath a spreading tree, you see an 
immense board announcing " Mrs. Keid, dressmaker." 

"We ascended one of the four minarets of the principal 
mosque, and obtained a really magnificent view of the 
city and its surroundings — the sandy wastes on either 
side of the river Ravee, the low, mean-looking houses 
within the walls, and the innumerable villa gardens with- 
out ; and in the evening we w^ere present at an amateur 
concert in the bungalow of Mr. Justice Elsmie, which 
w^as crowded with the beauty and fashion of Lahore. 
There are no fewer than two hundred and fifty mem- 
bers of an English society here. We drove to it in our 
camel-carriage, drawn this time by only two camels, and 
had to pay forfeit for our barbaric splendor, as the 



DELHI AKD LAHORE. 35 

creatures' heads were too high for the covered entrance- 
porch, and we had to get out in the dust. 

Lahore has a population of nearly one hundred thou- 
sand, and the extensive railway works employ two thou- 
sand people. The Bishop (French), formerly a Church 
missionary, called upon us — an earnest, liberal-minded 
man, highly respected in northern India. 

Here let me say that nothing so much imj)edes the 
progress of Christianity in that country as the proceed- 
ings of certain High Church dignitaries, who so thor- 
oughly mistake the doctrines of our most holy faith, and 
misrepresent the teachings of their Divine Master, as 
to treat clergymen of other denominations as beyond 
the pale, and very much on a level with the heathen. 
Hindoo inquirers ask if it is not true that a certain 
bishop says that the difference between Presbyterians and 
Episcopalians is fundamental ; and that another bishop 
withdrew the licenses of twenty -tiiree clergymen because 
they would not conform to his ritualistic practices. Ev- 
ery one 1 meet deplores the mischief done by bigots of 
this kind. 

The schools of the American Presbyterian Mission are 
said to be the most successful educational enterprise in 
the province. It cannot be for a moment doubted that, 
although the converts of the missionaries in Hindostan 
are few and far between, their teaching is shaking to 
its very centre the whole fabric of heathen mythology. 
The upper and educated classes have no belief in the 
gods of their fathers. I find in a hymn-book, composed 



36 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

by Lala Behari Lai for the use of an association of 
Hindoo reformers, the following, which might be sung 
in any Christian church : 

" Thou art my Maker ; 
Thou art the Creator of the World, 
Thine's all the universe : 

Blessed be Thy name. 

" The sun and moon while turning 
Speak forth Thy praise ; 
Thou weighest the earth in balances : 
Blessed be Thy name. 

"The wind as it blows 
Opens the door to Thy glory. 
And wafts abroad Thy divinity : 
Blessed be Thy name. 

"From the smallest tree, 
From the ant to man. 
All is created by Thee : 

Blessed be Thy name. 

" All the rivers and seas 
Are full of Thy righteousness ; 
Thou art limitless, eternal ; 

Blessed be Thy name. 

"Thy name is great 
Who hath wrought all these works ; 
I offer all my praise to Thee : 

Blessed be Thy name." 

Lahore for many centuries has been the resort of 
learned men, and the native believers in one God have 
now their full complement there. 

One of our visits was to the tomb of Runjeet Singh — 
of white marble with black lines — a conspicuous object 



DELHI AlTD LAHORE. 37 

on the wall below the fort. Four wives and seven con- 
cubines were burned at his burial. Another was to the 
Government prison, where twenty-four hundred men are 
confined, five hundred more being in another building 
some distance off, and a third containing two hundred 
and fifty women. All the arrangements, as far as eat- 
ing, houses, and cleanliness are concerned, appear to be 
admirable, but one fresh from Europe does not like to 
hear the clanking of so many chains. They make the 
most beautiful carpets, and I ordered one, to be ready 
in six months, at a price which w^ould rather surprise a 
British shopkeeper. A third visit was to the famous 
Shalamar Gardens, laid out in 1637 by the Emperor 
Shah Jehan. They consist of a great plantation of 
mango-trees, with many fountains and beds of roses, and 
are really very pretty and shady. I asked the custodian 
if he could show us the fruit of the mango. He said 
that these trees had borne none for two years ; and 
w^hen I inquired the reason, 1 received the truly Eastern 
answer, '' God knows !" 

Next morning we were very busy, and took full ad- 
vantage of our camel- carriage. The day before Christ- 
mas an exhibition of all the manufactures and artistic 
productions of the Punjaub, for which a special building 
has been erected, was to be opened, and Mr. Kipling, 
Director of the School of Art, who had charge of it, 
kindly allowed us to have a private view. There were a 
great many beautiful things, and some of them marvel- 
lously cheap. We next visited the Museum, chiefly re- 



38 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

markable for a valuable collection of Grseco-Bactrian 
Buddhist sculptures, from the Peshawur district. After 
that we went to the College, in which two institutes are 
combined under one roof, and Dr. Leitner, the enthu- 
siastic principal, showed us over the building. There 
are ninety-seven students in the English department, 
each of whom receives two rupees a month from the 
Government, and one hundred and ninety-two in the 
Oriental classes, which are supported entirely by volun- 
tary subscriptions. Dr. Leitner, who told us that he 
himself was supposed to speak twenty-five languages, has 
raised among the rich natives three lacs of rupees for 
this institution ; and we had the great satisfaction of 
seeing and hearing students from all parts of Central 
Asia, in clean, airy class-rooms, being taught mathemat- 
ics, chemistry, medicine, law — in fact, all the branches 
of an ordinary university education. They were of all 
ages, and most of them holy men — priests of their 
respective faiths. Think for a moment of the immense 
influence which such an institution as this must have in 
all the vast regions north as well as south of the Hima- 
layas ! 

We devoted the afternoon to the inspection of the 
native town of Lahore — a strange admixture of fantastic- 
ally carved and painted houses with mud hovels. In the 
rough, narrow, nnpaved and almost impassable streets, 
are open bazaars, where both wares and vendors are 
covered with flies. In spite of a great deal of filth and 
squalor, singularly enough, there is an almost entire 



DELHI AN-D LAHORE. 39 

absence of bad smells. The Wazir and Golden Mosques 
are curious edifices, in the centre of the city. 

These Punjaubees are a far finer and more stalwart 
race than the Hindoos, and some of the regiments in our 
service look very well indeed. 



CHAPTER lY. 

AGEA AND THE TAJ MAHAL. 

We left by the evening train on 15th December, and 
soon after I awoke next morning I descried a range of 
dark mountains on the left. Presently, as the sun got a 
little above the horizon, it shone upon what I first 
thought was a cloud ; for a moment it did not occur to 
me that the sky was cloudless. I took up Stanford's ad- 
mirable travelling map of India, and saw at once that 
the object was the summit of Kedarnath, or an adjoining 
peak, 22,900 feet high, and about one himdred and 
thirty miles off. 

My first sight of the Himalayas was not disappoint- 
ing ; and for two or three hours afterward, every time I 
looked out of the window, there was that great white 
solemn mountain piercing the sky. There were a num- 
ber of birds flying all about us that morning^ — king- 
fishers, kites, cranes, storks, ducks, the beautiful blue 
Indian jay, and many others unknown to me> 

We spent twenty-four hours in the Empress Hotel, 
Meerut — a building in which twenty-one people, being 
all its occupants, were murdered in 1857. Here the 
^ Mutiny commenced, and I wanted to see it on that ac- 
count ; and also because it is one of the most important 



AGRA A2i^D THE TAJ MAHAL. 41 

cantonments and military stations in India. Some of 
the bungalows are very large, especially those occupied 
by the King's Dragoon Guards ; and the Mall is the 
broadest and best-made avenue in our Eastern posses- 
sions, or perhaps anywhere else. 

Keturning to Ghazabad, we proceeded on the East 
Indian Railway over a poorly-cultivated plain, where 
many herds of cattle, buffaloes, sheep, and goats, and 
occasionally deer, derived a very precarious subsistence 
from the burnt-up pasture ; mango-orchards and cotton- 
fields occasionally relieved the landscape. It was nearly 
nine o'clock when, tired, dusty, and thirsty, we found 
ourselves drinking champagne in Laurie and Staten's 
hotel — a large bungalow in the European quarter, which 
covers a great space of ground outside Agra Fort. 

Next day was Sunday, and we mixed with a most 
picturesque-looking congregation of civilians and sol- 
diers in the English church, where the Rev. Father 
O'JSTeill, a well-known High Church enthusiast and 
celebrant, preached an impassioned sermon from the 
words, '' The Lord is at hand." 

After tiffin I had my first view of what most travel- 
lers believe to be the finest building in the world — the 
Taj Mahal — a mausoleum of pure white marble, built by 
Shah Jehan for his beautiful queen Moomtaza-Zumanee 
— the Light of the World — and in erecting which twenty 
thousand men were employed for twenty -two years, at a 
cost of between two and three millions sterling. It is as 
white as when first built, and richly decorated with 



42 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

mosaics inlaid with jasper, agate, carnelian, and other 
precious stones, all the work of Italian artists some two 
hundred and fifty years ago. The building itself stands 
on a marble terrace four hundred feet square, with a 
minaret one hundred feet high at each corner. Between 
it and the magnificent entrance-gate built of red sand- 
stone and marble, is one of the most beautiful gardens 
that I have seen in the East. At one end of the plat- 
form is a mosque in the same style and of the same 
materials as the gateway, and at the other end a build- 
ing architecturally to match, but not consecrated as a 
place of worship. 

I had expected great things, but found that I liad 
formed no conception of the reality. Anything so 
fairy-like, so spotless, so gracefully gigantic, so totally 
unlike other creations of man, I did not imagine had ex- 
istence on earth. I have now seen it from various points 
of view — from the gateway, from under the shade of the 
forest -trees in the garden, from a distance, from the top 
of one of the minarets, from the lofty platform overlook 
ing the Jumna ; and each time that I shut my eyes and 
opened them again it seemed like a heavenly vision, a 
something utterly superhuman dropped down by the 
celestials to astonish man. I now understand what a 
friend once said to me: "When you see the Taj at 
Agra, you will say it is worth w^hile going to India for 
that sight alone." Photography, painting, and even 
sculpture fail to give one an adequate idea of this amaz- 
ing tomb, and all the descriptions of it that I have 



AGRA AND THE TAJ MAHAL. 43 

ever read convey but the faintest notion of its perfect 
beauty. 

Agra Fort is a lofty and imposing edifice of red sand- 
stone, visible from a distance in all directions, and dom- 
inating both banks of the Jumna for miles around. 
Besides the British barracks, it contains the Palace of 
Akbar, with public and private reception-halls of white 
marble, resembling those at Delhi, and the Pearl 
Mosque, of the same material. How simple and grand 
it is — only lotus flowers carv^ed on the walls, and a few 
tastefully-colored mosaics : no tawdry images or orna- 
ments disfigure the place. How suitable for the worship 
of Jehovah ! 

The largest mosque in Agra — the Jumna Musjid — is 
so close as almost to form a part of the railway-station, 
the whistles of the locomotives and the cry of the muez- 
zins strangely mixing, and filling one's mind with 
thoughts of how this great Eastern problem is likely to 
be solved. 

The streets of the natis^e city are tolerably wide and 
well i^aved. The bazaars are stocked with vast quanti- 
ties of goods, and many elaborately- carved houses afford 
evidence of commercial prosperity. The traveller in the 
country cannot fail to be struck Avitli the spacious and 
well-made roads intersecting the English quarter in the 
neighborhood of every large town, and the obsequious 
respect shown to the sahibs driving in their carriages by 
the natives in bullock-carts or on foot. 

The winter smell of India is not pleasant ; the people, 



44 A WINTER IN" I]S"DIA. 

feeling tlie cold acutely, and being as a rule very poor, 
without the means of procuring proper fuel, burn all 
sorts of refuse, and everywhere the dull, sickening odor 
meets you, stealing into large bungalows and even per- 
meating the cooking. The number of huge kites, 
brown and white, and of carrion crows, seems surpris- 
ing ; but then they are the scavengers of this land ; no 
one thinks of molesting them, and well do they do their 
duty. 

We have enjoyed many drives in the neighborhood of 
Agra, and remark here, as elsewhere, the quantity and 
infinite variety of the birds. Every two or three yards 
we come upon minas in twos and threes, with dusty-red 
plumage, a little larger than a blackbird ; then there are 
green bee-eaters, the same as in Egypt ; hoopoes, blue 
jays of dazzling colors, and other flying creatures, large 
and small, the Hindu names of which would not be edify- 
ing. 

The prettiest place near Agra is Sikandra — the tomb 
of Akbar, from which was taken the Koh-i-noor. It is 
situated in a large inclosure, laid our precisely like an 
English nobleman's park, the trees and flowering-shrubs 
in which are very beautiful, the stately tamarinds being 
especially conspicuous, on account of their height and 
spreading foHage. Then there is a lovely tomb in a 
garden on the other side of the Jumna, which you 
reach by a very rickety bridge of boats ; it is that of 
Itmad-ud-daulah ; a perfect gem of white marble inlaid 
with precious stones, the workmanship of which, and 



AGRA AKI> THE TAJ MAHAL. 45 

particiilarly the marble screens, fills one with astonish- 
ment. 

The principal excursion is to Fattehpur-Sikri, which 
Akbar founded two hundred and fifty years ago, and in- 
tended to make his capital ; but he was forced to aban- 
don it because of the badness of the water. It is twenty- 
three miles distant, but there is an excellent road ; and it 
took us only three hours to drive to it. We met great 
numbers of carts, drawn by oxen, taking cotton and 
hewn stones and agricultural produce into the city, and 
passed through several miserable-looking villages of 
mud-hovels, closely resembling those in Upper Egypt. 

The palace, and the mosque called Bhund-Darwaza, 
occupy a lofty eminence on a great plain. The gateway 
of the latter is probably the finest in India, and rises one 
hundred and thirty feet above the plateau ; the quad- 
rangle is four hundred and thirty-three by three hun- 
dred and thirty-six feet, and inside of it there is a fairy- 
like vision, in the shape of a holy man's tomb, of the 
finest pieced work in white marble that I ever saw. It 
is just like lace ; and you can scarcely realize the fact that 
these delicately-traced screens of large size are really 
carved out of one block of so hard a material. 

When Akbar constructed this great edifice he was 
aspiring to be the chief imam of a reformed religion, 
and attempted in its quadrangle to expound his faith ; 
but his courage failed ; and all he could do was with 
stammering lips to repeat a stanza which one of his 
favorites had composed, which to my mind seems a good 



46 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

and orthodox sermon, and which may be translated 

thus : 

" The Lord to me the kingdom gave, 
He made me good and wise and brave, 
He guided me in faith and truth, 
He filled my heart with right and ruth ; 
No wit of man can sum His state, 
Allahu Akbar ! God is great !" 

We wandered for an hour among the silent ruins of 
his palace, saw an English class being taught in a room 
once belonging to the zenana, and were amused at being 
told that one tower, the divisions of which appeared to us 
very extraordinary, had been constructed so as to enable 
the emperor's ladies to play to the best advantage the 
game of blind-man's-buff. The buildings here, and in 
many other places we have visited, are being repaired 
and restored by the Government at great expense. It 
cannot be said that there is any neglect of the ancient 
monuments of India. 

The principal grain on the fields at this time of year 
is pulse. There is a variety of other cereals used by the 
people, such as moong, urd, etc., and every second or 
third shop in the bazaars and villages is for the sale of 
provisions. 

One day we were entertained to a performance by two 
female jugglers, and certainly some of the tricks are 
very remarkable ; but that of the mango-tree appeared 
to us easily explicable. On two other occasions we drove 
through the bazaars of the city, which are extremely in- 
teresting, the costumes of buyers and sellers, the ladies 



AGRA Al^D THE TAJ MAHAL. 47 

in the balconies, and the monkeys on the roofs consti- 
tuting a scene thoroughly Oriental. Then a couple of 
hari3ers used to come into the bungalow of an evening, 
and nothing could be funnier than their singing, in 
Hindu accents, " We won't go home till morning, till 
daylight does appear." 

Mr. Lawrence, Deputy Collector of the district, was 
kind enough to call and show me over the various offices 
under his control ; and also beneath the same roof I had 
the advantage of hearing trials, both of civil and criminal 
cases. 

To-day I have seen two corpses being carried on men's 
shoulders to be cremated, carefully covered, but without 
coffin or funeral pall. Those of the richer natives are 
attended by many mourners, making a loud wailing 
noise, the bones and ashes being conveyed to the Ganges, 
as being holier than the Jumna, which is close at hand. 

1 have been four times to the Taj, and my original 
impression has not altered at all. The red sandstone of 
the adjacent buildings takes away from its effect, more 
especially at a distance ; but the proportions, the color, 
the workmanship and the design of the structure are per- 
fectly lovely ; you can scarcely realize, so admirable are 
the lines, that the dome is two hundred and forty-seven 
feet above the garden. 

My wife spent the forenoon of our last day in Agra in 
accompanying Miss Johnston, a lady from Forfarshire 
connected with the Medical Mission, on her visits to 
several of the zenanas of the poorer women of the city. 



48 A WIXTER II^- INDIA. 

Miss Johnston carried her medicine-chest with her, and 
administered to those who stood in need of her aid. 
These poor people have no means of getting medical ad- 
vice, as no man, unless connected witli the family, is 
allowed to visit them ; and the best that can be done is 
for their husbands to tell their symptoms to a doctor. 
Some of the houses were very poor and extremely 
wretched, totally destitute of furniture, and the lives of 
their inmates appeared to my wife to be one of utter 
misery. The women received the medicines with the 
greatest gratitude. Surely this is the most potent lever 
that a missionary can use ! 

Mr. Thomson, Professor of English Literature in the 
University — an Arbroath man — called upon me in the 
morning ; Dr. Valentine, the respected medical mission- 
ary, whom I have now seen twice, hails from Brechin ; 
Mr. Weir, the banker, from whom I got my money, 
told me that his father was a clergyman in Arbroath ; 
and, to cap the Forfarshire connection, when I asked the 
station-master to reserve a carriage for us for Lucknow, 
he told me that he would do so with great pleasure, and 
more especially as his name, although he was an Eura- 
sian, was Wilham Baxter, and his father came from 
Scotland ! 



CHAPTER Y. 

LUCKNOW AND CAWNPOEE. 

At 6.22 P.M., on 24:tli December, we left Agra ; and, 
amid the most frightful noise — shunting in various direc- 
tions, and bumping of too severe a description to be con- 
sistent with a Christian state of mind — at Cawnpore 
Junction, about three o'clock in the morning, 1 heard 
the exclamation, " A merry Christmas to you !" Be- 
tween six and seven we were whirled off in gharries — • 
the rough covered cabs of the country — from the station 
to Hill's '' tumble-down-dick" Hotel in Lucknow ; and 
I don't know why, but my first remark on entering it 
was, '^ We are now seven thousand miles from London." 

'No rain has fallen here since the first week in Septem- 
ber, and the dust lies thick, not only on all the roads and 
roofs and walls, but on the topmost leaves of every tree. 
Most of the trees of India are evergreen, or nearly so ; 
those which do not absolutely answer to this description 
only shedding their leaves for a week or two in Febru- 
ary. Rain is very much wanted now, and I hear fears 
already expressed regarding the state of the crops. 

People at home can scarcely realize w^hat vast districts 
in India are every now and then on the brink of famine. 
Oude is one of the finest provinces in the country ; yet a 



50 A WIl^TER Iiq- Iiq^DIA. 

gentleman in high position told me that of its 11,000,000 
inhabitants 4,000,000 were insufficiently fed, and double 
that number just able to get enough to sustain them, 
rendering anything like payment for education totally 
out of the question. 

I went on Sunday morning to the American Methodist 
Episcopal Church, where one of the missionaries delivered 
a very striking and original discourse appropriate to the 
season. Some of our party went to a church which shall 
be nameless, where the clergyman delivered no dis- 
course at all, but simply told a large congregation of 
high-bred British ladies and gentlemen not to get drunk 
at Christmas-time ! 

Lucknow, the City of E-oses, is quite a modern place 
— only one hundred years old — but has a population of 
nearly 300,000. It may be styled, like Washington, the 
city of magnificent distances, so widely spread are the 
European dwellings all around it. Its two chief charac- 
teristics are the number of gaudy, gingerbread-looking, 
painted stucco palaces and temples, the tawdry tinsel of 
which makes one feel quite angry (more particularly 
after seeing Agra), and the remarkable beauty of its 
public gardens and parks. I don't know any city so 
highly favored in this respect. The Wingfield Park is 
unsurpassed for the variety of its forest trees ; and noth- 
ing can exceed the loveliness of the flowers, the flower- 
ing shrubs, the walks and beds in the Eesidency, which 
has been left in ruins, just as it was when the mutineers 
marched out of it, after the rescue and retreat of that 



LUCKN-OW AKD CAWI^-PORE. 51 

band of heroes whose exploits astonished the world. I 
have examined the ground with the greatest care ; have 
stood uncovered at Sir Henry Lawrence's grave ; have 
been twice in early morning to the neighboring gate of 
the city where General 'Neil was shot ; and to me it is 
simply inconceivable how the original six hundred could 
have held out for a day against sixty thousand assailants 
with upward of three hundred pieces of cannon. I 
have climbed to the top of one of the lofty minarets of 
the mosque adjoining the Imambarra Palace ; I have 
ascended to the top of the Martini^re College, on an 
eminence overlooking the city ; and how Sir Henry 
Havel ock, and then Sir Colin Campbell, managed, with 
a handful of men, first to relieve the Residency, and 
then to take the city by storm, passes my comprehen-" 
sion. No more striking instances exist in history of 
what British soldiers can do when led by competent 
men. 

The tale of the siege of Lucknow appeared to me a 
marvellous one at the time ; now that 1 have trod the 
ground, it seems something like a miracle, and one can- 
not help remarking what a fine, determined-looking 
body of men inhabit this capital of Oude. Its fantastic 
domes and minarets look far better in photographs than 
in the reality : just think of these yellow and pink 
colored arches of plaster and paint after the glorious 
Taj ! '' 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view." 
1 get away from them as fast as possible, to wander 
among the poinsettia, bougainvilleas, hibiscus, and olean- 



53 A WIKTER li^ IN^DIA. 

der of the gardens ; and the banians, peepuls, and tama- 
rinds of the park. 

The bazaars are extremely amusing. I find it impos- 
sible to describe them, but can only refer to an illustrated 
copy of *^ The Arabian Nights." 

A very interesting drive is to the Alumbagh, the 
scene of so much fighting in those terrible times. On 
our way we passed the camp of the commissariat ele- 
phants — a novel spectacle to a European. 

On the forenoon of the 27th December there was a 
gathering of the school-children of the American Mission 
in the Wingfield Park, for the distribution of Christmas 
prizes. It was addressed by the Rev. Mr. Johnson, 
from Shahjehanpore and the Rev. Mr. Parker from 
Moradabad, both of whom spoke with the utmost fluency 
in Hindostani, and seemed to rivet the attention of the 
audience ; and I was unexpectedly called upon to make a 
speech in the centre of India, just a month after I had 
landed on its shores. Then we lunched with Colonel 
Worseley, with whom I examined some of the expensive 
new barracks in process of erection ; and we heard the 
band of the Seventh Native Infantry play admirably in 
the Wingfield Park in the evening. 

The extraordinary sounds one hears at night outside 
these bungalows in the neighborhood of Indian towns are 
surprising. There are dogs and wild beasts of various 
descriptions, but louder than all, the yelling of the men 
who are hired to keep them off the compounds, and 
also to protect the houses against thieves. They mostly 



LUCKKOW Aiq-D CAWKPORE. 53 

belong to predatory bands themselves, and in tbis 
manner levy a sort of blackmail on the inhabitants. 
''There is no stillness in Indian life," said an officer's 
wife to me to-day. Her husband a few hours before 
had remarked, while we were plodding through the dust 
under a fiery, burning sun, '' This is our cold weather !" 

At dayhght on Wednesday morning, 28th December, 
we were galloping in gharries full speed to the railway 
station — why they should go at this furious pace, qiden 
sale ? The Oude and Kohilcund Kailway Company pro- 
vided us with the most spacious and well-constructed car- 
riage that 1 have seen in India, in which we travelled 
over a fertile and well-wooded plain back to Cawnpore. 
These Indian plains are endless, unbroken ; there is no 
undulation, or hillock, or mound of any kind to relieve 
their vast monotony. 

The train slackens its speed — a great viaduct is before 
us, and we get our first sight of the sacred Ganges. At 
this season it is not a very imposing river, but the wide 
expanse of sand shows what a mighty stream it must be 
after the rains. 

Sergeant Lee, a very remarkable man, now keeps the 
clean little railway hotel — a bungalow near the station. 
He went out to India in 18M ; has marched from 
Peshawur to Calcutta, twenty-two hundred miles, in 
four months ; was in nearly all the great battles in 
Scinde ; marched to the rehef of Lucknow and Cawnpore 
with Sir Henry Havelock and Lord Clyde ; although 
three times wounded, has enjoyed perfect health, without 



54 , A WINTER Illf Iiq"DIA. 

ever being home, or even up to the hills ; is very well 
to do, and very thankful to God for his position and suc- 
cess in life. 

1 write at the close of a memorable day, when, under 
his guidance, and listening to his vivid and naturally elo- 
quent descriptions, we have visited the scenes of the 
awful catastrophe — the three wells : first, that into which 
were thrown the bodies of those who died in Wheeler's 
intrenchment, and for which no cemetery could be found 
among the living ; the second, from which the beseiged 
could alone draw water, always at the peril of their 
lives, as it was commanded by the enemy's guns ; the 
third, into wliich were heaped the mutilated bodies of 
Nana Sahib's victims, which now stands in the midst of 
a most beautiful garden, and over which has been 
erected a memorial screen, and a statue by Baron Maro- 
chetti. We sat on the steps of the ghaut where the too- 
confiding ones embarked and were fired upon ; in- 
spected the monuments in the handsome Memorial 
Church ; and for four hours listened to descriptions of 
horrors almost too terrible for relation. 

It may be that the tale of the massacre, and what hap- 
pened afterward, may never be told. Things could be 
written about Sepoy barbarities in the next generation 
which could scarcely, having regard to the feehngs of 
sorrowing families, be committed to paper while any of 
the victims are alive ; and it may turn out that blowing 
from the guns was one of the mildest forms of retribu- 
tion practised by the British troops. 



LUCKNOW AKD CAWHPORE. 55 

The Mohammedans in Cawnpore are wealthy and in- 
fluential ; they raised large sums of money for the Turks 
during the Russian war, and nearly all are Jingoes, 
although notoriously disaffected to British rule. 



CHAPTER YL 

ALLAHABAD AND BENARES. 

We left at mid -day for Allahabad, passing through 
the most fertile and best cultivated district we have seen 
in India — luxuriant crops, or their remains, of Indian 
corn, wheat, millet, pulse, and castor-oil, alternating 
with mango orchards and clumps of stately forest trees ; 
lovely birds, conspicuous among which were the blue- 
jay, the Sarus crane, and a kind of shrike with an orange 
breast, appearing in almost every field and grove. The 
day, as many of our days at this time were, was perfect, 
just like the finest in an English June ; but several 
things reminded us that we were not at home — for ex- 
ample, jackals looking at us from the edge of the maize 
plantations. 

At ^ye o'clock, wide roads, barracks, and other marks 
of a capital showed us that we were approaching Allaha- 
bad, *' the City of God," which the railways have made 
a place of great importance. It is situated at the junc- 
tion of the Ganges and the Jumna, and has a native pop- 
ulation of upward of a hundred thousand in addition to 
the Europeans, who muster strongly there, and whose 
bungalows, far apart, are separated from the crowded 
bazaars and streets of the city by the railway line. 



ALLAHABAD AKD BE]S"ARES. 57 

There are in the British quarter of Allahabad no fewer 
than ninety-seven miles of fine avenues, shaded by trees 
and well watered ; and one morning I measured the 
breadth of a fair sample of them — Thornhill Road — and 
found it to be fifty-five paces. 

Chief-Justice Sir Robert Stuart and his lady were in 
the railway-station waiting for us, and 1 do not recollect 
in any part of tlie world having been treated with more 
overflowing hospitality. Some of us lived in his bunga- 
low, and he insisted upon the whole party dining there 
every day, where we met many of the leading residents, 
and altogether had what the Americans call * ' a right 
good time of it," military men, civilians, and journal- 
ists contributing to add to our stock of knowledge of 
Indian affairs. 

The day after our arrival Mr. Douglas Straight, who 
sat in the House of Commons with me for four years, 
and who is now one of the justices of the North-west 
Province, drove us to the picturesquely-situated fort at 
the confluence of the rivers, where thousands of devotees 
were washing in the sacred waters. We had a fine view 
from the ramparts, but the sun was very hot ; and we 
were glad to escape from it to inspect one of those case- 
mates where everything is kept in readiness, in the event 
of any attack being made upon one of the most impor- 
tant positions in India. 

In the evening Mr. Straight and other friends pro- 
vided myself and my daughters with horses, and we rode 
among the fashionables in Alfred Park. IS'ear that taste- 



58 A WIKTER IN IlirDIA. 

fully laid out pleasure-ground is the Mayo Hall, from 
the top of whose tower I had a fine view of the city and 
neighborhood, and in which one evening there was a ball 
that I attended. The Muir College, in process of build- 
ing, named after a former respected and popular gov- 
-ernor of the province, is also near the park. 

1 visited likewise the Christian village founded by Sir 
William and Lady Muir, between the European quarter 
and the Ganges ; and was shown over the church, 
school, and clean native houses by the pastor. Rev. Mr. 
Mohen, who speaks English very well, and was glad to 
see a party of strangers. 

The variety of costumes, vehicles, and wares, the 
cries, the curious groups of creatures clothed and un- 
clothed, the scenes which one beholds every moment in 
the streets and bazaars of Allahabad, are so totally dif- 
ferent from everything an untravelled Briton ever saw, 
or could imagine, that description would certainly be 
in vain. 

I get up every morning and walk in the Chief Jus- 
tice's garden, examining the fruits and flowers— what a 
magnificent display of roses ! — and rejoicing in the 
thought that an unclouded sun appears every day, and 
that no rains or storms can interfere with our plans of 
travel. There are no bells in Indian houses, nor do 
native servants wear shoes or stockings ; when anything 
is wanted, the master or mistress calls ^' Qui hai !" and 
instantly from some obscure corner an unnoticed menial 
noiselessly appears. 



ALLAHABAD AND BEWARES. 59 

1 went on Sunday morning with Lady Stuart to ser- 
vice in the English church, which was extremely well 
conducted ; but the sermon— not by the minister himself 
— consisted of a dozen sentences, although it was IN^ew 
Year's day ; and surely something might have been said, 
of a solemn and impressive nature, suited to the occa- 
sion. 

Shortly after eight o'clock on the following morning 
we were again in our railway-carriage, and crossing the 
great bridge over the Jumna passed for a long distance 
through a rich and well- wooded country, where there 
were many fields of flax in addition to the usual crops. 
One is struck by the immense distances over which these 
railways are carried in absolutely straight lines, a curve 
being quite a novelty. To-day we have made the fastest 
run which we have yet had in this country — viz. , from 
Sirsia to Mirzapore : thirty-two miles in an hour. The 
gauge of most of the Indian railways is midway between 
that of the l^orth Western and the Great Western, or 
almost, if not exactly, the same as that originally laid 
down between Dundee and Arbroath. 

There are a good many miles of apoor, sandy country ; 
and, what is a novelty in these unbroken plains, a few 
hills before arriving at Mogul- Serai, which is the junc- 
tion for Benares, s^'lraated six miles off the main line. 

We were all disappointed with the first view of this 
place, the holy city of the Hindoos, whose two hundred 
thousand inhabitants are crammed into a very small 
space on a bluff on the left bank of the Ganges, and 



60 A WINTER IK IJfDiA. 

whose beauties have been a good deal exaggerated both 
bj pen and pencil. Clark's Hotel, fully three miles 
from the railway station, is said to be the best in India ; 
and certainly its landlady — a native, and not even of 
high caste, although married to an Englishman — does 
everything in her power, and successfully, to make it so. 

The Maharajah of Benares sent two open carriages to 
the railway-station for. us, and placed them at our dis- 
posal during our residence. He is now simply a great 
nobleman, or zemindar, having an income of thirteen 
lacs (1,300,000) of rupees (rupee = 60 cents— $650,000) ; 
and as he was at his country house, some distance 
from the city, a gentleman of eminence, and much in his 
confidence, Mr. Shivpershad, called upon us, and offered 
his services. He. was brought up in the Education 
Department, and has lately had the honor of being 
elected a member of the Supreme Council of India ; 
speaks English not only fluently but elegantly ; ridicules 
the idea of any danger to this great country from 
Russia ; strongly deprecates the policy which culminated 
in the Afghan war, and maintains that the principal 
thing that India and its people ardently desire is peace. 
He took us first to visit the college, where there are one 
thousand students ; then to the Town Hall, the gift of a 
munificent native ; and afterward through the chief and 
very crowded street of the city to a temple inhabited by 
a vast number of monkeys. 

A great deal of money is spent in Benares, as rich 
people come from all parts of the Hindoo world, a few 



ALLAHABAD AHD BEliirARES. 61 

years before they expect their end, in order to die in the 
holy city. The fluctuations of commerce and the intro- 
duction of railways have led in India, as in other 
countries, to many ups and downs in the fortunes of 
cities. Since Allahabad has become a great junction, 
Mirzapore, its once flourishing rival, has dwindled 
away ; but the sacred Benares will always hold its own 
as long as the Hindoo religion lasts. 

There are very few converts to Christianity in this 
part of Hindostan. '* Very, very slowly," said a mis- 
sionary of the London Society to me the other day, 
*' does the work go on ;" but then he showed me a high 
school, where he and one of his European colleagues, 
assisted by twenty-four natives, teach five hundred boys, 
imparting religious as well as secular instruction ; and he 
told me that not only is the number of pilgrims steadily 
falling off, but that their contributions for purposes of 
their faith have likewise so much declined that the 
punga, or principal priest of one of the temples, was 
lately obliged to mortgage the whole of its property in 
order to pay expenses. 

Some of our friends, it appears to me, attach far too 
much importance to making open and avowed converts 
to Christianity. They forget how many people there 
may be — ^women, for example — ^in this land who, if they 
changed their nominal religion would lose their caste, 
and their husbands too. May they not be excused for 
being Christians in secret, and thus not becoming charge- 
able to the funds of some society, which they certainlv 



62 . A WINTER IN INDIA. 

otherwise would do ? The converts, no doubt, are few ; 
but the sapping and mining process is going on all the 
time. The civilians who oppose the missionaries, but 
who, in fact, know very little about them, admit this to 
be the case. There is among the masses a cessation of 
hostility to Christian instruction — completely in some 
parts of the country, and more or less so in all ; and 
although the attitude of the higher class of natives who 
have abandoned belief in Hindooism is not hopeful, as 
far as Christianity is concerned, the lower classes have 
not become Deists, like their betters ; and the known 
want of faith of the latter is beginning to be felt as an 
important factor in the feeling of the Indian peasantry 
toward the religion of their governors. 

There are said to be five thousand temples and three 
hundred and fifty mosques at Benares. One of the for- 
mer is tenanted solely by monkeys, which also swarm 
in the city generally, and their depredations are a serious 
source of loss to the inhabitants ; so much so, that the 
municipality recently offered a reward for catching them 
and taking them away to the jungle ; but in vain. The 
creatures confine themselves almost entirely to the roofs 
of the houses, decline to be made prisoners, and, as no 
Hindoo would kill or injure them, are masters of the 
situation. Heaven forbid that I should ever again enter 
the Grolden Temple and the various other sacred shrines 
in the centre of crowded Benares ; the filth and odors 
from wretched specimens of humanity, fakirs and beg- 
gars, sacred bulls and monkeys, being simply indescrib- 



ALLAHABAD AND BEIJfARES. 63 

able ! Even the beautiful gold brocade-work in the 
bazaars would hardly tempt me to enter those pestiferous 
narrow lanes. 

Nothing can be more disappointing than the land side 
of this holy city. Sercole itself, which is the name of the 
European quarter, is much less inviting and pleasantly 
laid out than any of the other similar settlements which 
1 have seen in the neighborhood of Indian cities ; but 
Benares from the river in early morning is another thing 
altogether— a scene, a sight, a kind of dream never to be 
forgotten. 

We drove in the Maharajah's carriages, attended by 
his intelligent secretary, to a temple at a point just 
above the town ; and there embarked in his highness's 
state barge, manned by a crew of twelve in scarlet liver- 
ies, an official with a gigantic silver stick receiving us at 
the gangway. Amidships the vessel was covered with a 
gorgeous canopy, and from the prow projected two ram- 
pant wooden horses. Thus luxunously did we drop down 
the sacred river for the whole length of the city, and 
nothing could exceed the picturesque effect produced by 
the rays of the just-risen sun upon its towers and domes 
and temples and palaces. The ghats, or long flights of 
stone steps from the houses and streets to the stream, 
were crowded with devotees of both sexes and all ages, 
in every stage of nudity, yet modest withal, who were 
bathing in its holy waters, and filling from it their 
brightly-burnished brazen vessels. The priests were 
tinkhng their cymbals of brass, and raising their voices 



64 A WIInTTER IK INDIA. 

aloud in praise of their gods ; garments of the brightest 
hne glistened in the sun ; fakirs held aloft their hands 
in adoration ; and barges landed piles of wood, to burn 
the corpses laid on the banks ; while goats, cows, don- 
keys, monkeys, vultures, parroquets, and crows mingled 
freely with the devout multitude. 

The architecture of some of the houses belonging to 
native princes strikes one every now and then as singu- 
larly chaste and effective ; but adjacent mud hovels spoil 
the coup d^mil. Many of the ghats are tumbling down, 
and the holy river is inexpressibly dirty. Just below the 
rough, rickety bridge of boats is the commanding site of 
the old fort, where also stood the city of Kasi, founded 
1600 B.C. They are about to begin a great railway- 
bridge over the Ganges at this spot. 

In the afternoon we witnessed another performance of 
jugglers, whose most remarkable trick was instigating a 
mongoose to kill a snake, whose head was reduced to 
pulp, but which, under the influence of their incantations, 
was restored to perfect health in a few minutes. Then 
they had scarcely gone when the veranda of the bungalow 
was covered with fruits and vegetables and native dishes 
presented to us by the Maharajah ; and in the evening 
we had a delightful drive through mango orchards, fields 
of barley in ear, springing wheat, beans, and vegetables 
of various kinds, to. the ruins of Sarnath, where Buddha 
himself once lived, and where he founded a religion even 
now professed by a great majority of the population of 
Asia. 



ALLAHABAD AKD BENARES. 65 

There is a large business carried on in Benares in brass- 
work. Mrs. Clarkj of the hotel, employs sixty people ; 
and as scarcely any travellers require accommodation in 
India except in the cold season, the trade in brass is 
larger and more lucrative than that of keeping an inn. 

On Thursday we enjoyed a remarkable and truly 
Oriental excursion to the Maharajah's castle of Kamnug- 
gur, situated on a lofty bank several miles above and on 
the opposite side of the river from Benares, and com- 
manding a strikingly beautiful view of the city and its 
surroundings. First, we drove through gardens and fields 
of corn, then were carried in tangans — a sort of bath- 
chair, borne on poles by four coolies — to a sand-bank out 
in the stream, where the BaceJiorse barge was waiting to 
take us across to the picturesque stronghold, the battle- 
ments of which were manned by natives in all kinds of 
costumes and colors ; while on the banks were carriages 
and caparisoned elephants, and troops of servants wait- 
ing to do our bidding — the great man is said to have no 
fewer than three thousand retainers. He himself was at 
a distant country seat, but we were received by his 
nephew and heir, who showed us over the castle, intro- 
duced us to his little boy, who was learning English, let 
us see a performance by Nautch girls, and came, after 
we had lunched with friends in a pavilion in the beauti- 
ful gardens, to exhibit his horsemanship and his skill as a 
marksman by hitting with a rifie-ball a rupee thrown into 
the air — a feat which our entertainer, Mr. Ross, him- 
self one of the best shots in India, and a member of a 



66 A WINTER INT ISTDIA. 

family celebrated for tlieir prowess in this respect, said 
he could not perform. Then there were snake-charm- 
ers and actors from the Deccan, who played on the plat- 
form of the immense tank adjoining the garden. 

We dropped down the river to the city at sunset in the 
barge, and in the evening attended a concert in aid of 
an asylum for widows, got up by Mr. Lambert, of the 
London Missionary Society, and patronized by all the 
officials. The jackals had a horrible chorus that night, 
and we were awakened at dawn by the trumpeting of 
elephants. 



CHAPTER YII. 

AT CALCUTTA. 

On the 6th of January, at mid-day, we joined the 
mail-train at Mogul-Serai Junction, and travelled over a 
vast, apparently interminable plain, well wooded and 
cultivated, fertile and irrigated ; crossed the Sone at 
four o'clock on a great viaduct ; halted fifteen minutes 
at the important military cantonment of Dinapoor ; 
passed the city of Patna ; at Mokameh had the best rail- 
way dinner we had tasted in India ; at dusk found our- 
selves between strangely -shaped and isolated hills, and 
had hardly time to rub our eyes and tie up our wraps in 
the morning when, punctual to the moment, at 5.40 the 
train drew up in Howrah Station, on the other side of 
the Hooghly from Calcutta. The Government House 
drag, with four horses and two postilions, and various 
servants of the Viceroy, were waiting for us, and we 
were very soon comfortably installed in much more 
spacious apartments than we had occupied for some 
time. 

1 had a busy day, calling on merchants, missionaries, 
and other friends, and making various arrangements for 
our journey. 

On Sunday morning I attended divine service at 



68 A WIIIirTER IK IKDIA. 

Union Chapel, in tlie Dhurumtollali, one of the most im- 
portant streets in Calcutta, and immediately afterward 
proceeded up the river in the Yiceroy's steam-launch 
Gemini, to lunch with Lord and Lady Kipon at Barrack- 
pore, where they generally spend Saturday and Sunday, 
in a villa situated in one of the most beautiful parks in 
all India. Opposite to it are the famous Baptist Mission 
premises of Serampore, identified with the names of 
Carey and Marshman, and where, being then Danish 
territory, the early preachers of Christianity took refuge, 
when expelled by the directors of the Company from 
British soil. 

It was a beautiful sail, the scenery on both banks 
being very varied, and the foliage strikingly green even 
in winter. There were peepul and tamarind and palm 
trees, picturesque-looking temples, great jute factories, 
with pretty villas attached ; boats of every sort and de- 
scription, many of them like Yenetian gondolas, passed 
up and down the stream ; and brilliant flowers from 
overhanging gardens added color to the landscape. The 
evergreenness of Indian trees is one of the most striking 
features of the country ; and I recollected when walking 
up the avenue of poinsettias and bamboos, which leads 
from the river-bank to the viceregal country seat, that 
1 had not seen rain, and hardly clouds, since we were in 
Munich, more than two months ago. 

I was very glad to have a long conversation with the 
Marquis of Ripon, with whom I had been associated in 
the House of Commons in early life, and whose praises 



At CALCUTTA. 69 

as a man and as a ruler I had heard with no surprise 
from persons of all political opinions and religious creeds 
wherever we had been during our Indian tour. I had 
expected, in consequence of the great change of policy 
since the Afghan war, to have found a good deal of 
difference of opinion with regard to Lord Ripon, but on 
the contrary there seemed to be none ; every one I met 
extolled his government, except an agent of some tea 
plantations, who knew as little about Indian politics as 
he did about the inhabitants of Jupiter. 

Calcutta is a wonderful place, containing about eight 
hundred thousand inhabitants, and the shipping of the 
Hooghly — vast steamers and sailing vessels from all 
parts of the world — gives one an exalted idea of its com- 
mercial importance. The Maidan, an immense open 
space larger than Hyde Park, immediately joins the 
river, and you have the unique sight of fashionable 
equipages dashing past within stone's- throw of Oceanic 
steamers. 

"We were a party of thirty at dinner at Government 
House on Monday evening, and I was happy to see Lord 
Kipon, after his recent severe illness, looking better than 
he has ever done in his life. 

On "Wednesday I had a very interesting excursion to 
the jute factory of Samnuggur, twenty-three miles up 
the river, where there are four thousand workpeople and 
four hundred and fifteen looms. Mr. Smith, the man- 
ager, took us up in his steam-launch, and we were accom- 
panied by Lord Lawrence, at present staying at Govern- 



TO A WIiq^TER IK IKDIA. 

ment House. We were extremely amused by the grin- 
mug countenances of the little boys employed : 1 never 
Raw anything as good in a pantomine. The Hindoos 
learn to work very quickly ; they will pick np as mnch 
ia a week or ten days a European will in six months, but 
are not very easily managed ; and some of the factories 
on the river have never been able to get a sufficient num- 
ber of hands, although the pay is excellent — two to 
three rupees ($1 to $1.50) a week, which in this country, 
especially when several members of the same family 
are employed, means affluence. Mr. Smith hospitably 
entertained us in his pretty bungalow on the river-bank, 
and we sat in the veranda afterward, watching the 
stream and the great jungle of bamboos opposite. 

There was a children's fancy ball at Government 
House in the evening, and a picturesque sight it was : 
two hundred seniors appearing in costume, in addition to 
the young people and those living in the mansion. 

l^ext morning 1 attended a meeting of the Legislative 
Council, in that famous chamber where so many resolu- 
tions for good and bad have been passed. Portraits of 
the various Viceroys hang on the walls, the evil counte- 
nance of Warren Hastings being the most conspicuous. 

Even in the dead of winter the heat of the business 
portion of Calcutta oppresses me. I feel wearied driv- 
ing in a gharry ; and the crowds in the streets, on the 
stairs, and in the offices themselves, seem as if they 
would run you over. The jackals are as noisy in the 
early part of the night round Goveimment House as we 



AT CALCUTTA. 71 

have heard them anywhere else. They live in the 
clumps of palms in the garden, and like the innumerable 
kites are never destroyed, as they are nature's best 
scavengers. The streets of Calcutta are wider than 
those of most Indian cities, tramways are used exten- 
sively, very handsome new public offices are in course of 
construction in Dalhousie Square, and the stranger will 
be struck with the bustle and activity everywhere visible. 

I spent Friday morning with Major Baring, convers- 
ing principally on the financial condition of the country, 
and then inspected the very fine building occupied by 
the Bank of Bengal, where three hundred clerks are em- 
ployed. 

It appears to me that India is likely now to take a 
step in advance ; education, railways, newspapers, and 
other influences are lifting it up as it were, breaking 
down old prejudices, letting in the hght, and removing 
some of those causes which have hitherto had such a de- 
pressing effect on the population. The principal deside- 
ratum is a policy of peace, which will enable the Gov- 
ernment to provide out of surplus revenue — first for the 
relief of the miserable masses from such taxes as that on 
salt, which bears so heavily on the poor ; and then for 
the development of vast districts of the country, as yet 
neglected, by means of railroads and otherwisCj so as to 
increase production and avert famines. Such beneficial 
measures are out of the question if millions are to be 
thrown away on absolutely unnecessary and unjust fron- 
tier wars — wars which make enemies of proud neighbor- 



72 A WINTER ISr INDIA. 

ing races, and wMch cost India infinitely more than the 
mere actual expenditure shown in the military accounts. 
It will be impossible largely to extend education, to open 
up communications, to provide the requisite irrigation, 
^ or to do many other things absolutely necessary for the 
future well-being of the people, unless there is an end to 
this system of picking quarrels for which they have got 
to pay. The natives with whom I have conversed, 
Hindoo and Mohammedan as well, feel strongly on this 
point. 

The recent endeavors of the Government to stimulate 
private enterprise, especially in the construction of rail- 
roads, instead of making them itself, are theoretically, 
and from a politico-economic point of view, quite right ; 
but I doubt very much whether it will be possible, for a 
considerable time to come, to get much done in this way, 
unless the state is prepared to grant a guarantee, say, 
for a limited period of years ; and I should be surprised 
were the able and judicious men now at the head of 
affairs here to insist too strongly on Government refus- 
ing all aid. 

"With respect to taxation in general, we at home must 
never forget that great consideration should be paid to 
the prevailing sentiment among educated natives, al- 
though it may appear to us founded on erroneous prin- 
ciples. On this point let me quote a few words from 
the Indian Spectator^ a well-conducted newspaper pub- 
lished in Bombay : '^ One important fact seems often 
to be forgotten by our rulers : that the views, opinions. 



AT CALCUTTA. 73 

and systems of free civilized countries of Europe, how- 
ever good from tlie point of European politics and Euro- 
pean economy, are not exactly or even approximately 
the views, opinions, and systems which ought to be cir- 
culated or enforced in a semi-civilized Asiatic country. 
It is needless at this time of the day to remind the 
authorities how vastly different are the political, social, 
and even economic conditions of this country from 
others. It has been more than once stated in these col- 
umns how dangerous it is to govern India on European 
principles." These cautions must be kept in mind in 
dealing with such matters as the tarijS, the opium 
revenue, and the income-tax. 

As far as I can learn, the question of the employment 
of natives in official life is making fair and satisfactory 
progress. I find no disposition whatever to discourage 
it on the part of those in power. One difficulty stand- 
ing in the way of its more rapid extension is, that most 
of the better-educated classes among them are zemin- 
dars, or rich land, proprietors, whose interests are consid- 
ered by the masses of the cultivators to be antagonistic to 
their own ; so much so indeed that the latter are accus- 
tomed to look in preference to Europeans for justice. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE TEA-PLANTATIONS, DARJEELING. 

There is an excellent custom at Government House, 
in Calcutta, of presenting each person living in the 
house with a printed list of the guests to be present at 
the dinner parties, so that you know whom you are to 
meet ; and I thought that this might be very well imi- 
tated at some of the London entertainments. 

We left for an excursion in the Himalayas on Satur- 
day, 7th January, and were driven to the Sealdah Rail- 
way Station in the viceregal chariot with the postilions. 
The scenery for many miles was more Oriental, as far as 
foliage was concerned, than any we had yet seen in 
India : dense jungle of bamboo alternating with gardens 
of palms, bananas, and mangoes, with occasional patches 
of wheat and tobacco ; then came wide plains, with im- 
mense numbers of cattle and buffaloes feeding on almost 
invisible stubble ; rows of fine tamarind-trees ; pictu- 
resque houses of bamboo and mats, like representations of 
scenes in Borneo. At dark we reached the Ganges, 
crossing it in a steamer and dining on board. 

I made myself comfortable for the night soon after 
entering the narrow-gauge railway on the other side, fell 
asleep shortly after nine o'clock, and was astonished 



THE TEA-PLANTATIOI^S, DABJEELIITG. ?5 

when a man shouted in my ear at 6 a.m., '* J^ext station 
Silignri." Here we breakfasted, and took our seats in 
perhaps the most extraordinary and toy-like tram rail- 
road which exists on the face of the earth. An Ameri- 
can said of it the other day to a friend of mine : "I 
guess I have seen a good many queer things in the shape 
of railroads in my country, but this is the cheekiest little 
concern that ever I came across." The rails are two 
feet apart ; the carriages are like low tram-cars ; and so 
steep is the gradient — often one in seventeen — that little 
boys, seated on the engine, jump off at places where the 
sun has not melted the dew, to put sand on the rails, the 
tiny engine meantime puffing and blowing until the 
wheels can get a grip. At one place there is an actual 
loop, the train passing over a bridge which it had passed 
under a few minutes before. 

I am one of those unfortunate - people who become 
easily giddy looking down from great heights, and my 
friends had prepared me for a terrible experience on this 
line ; but except at four at five unprotected curves close 
to Darjeeling, it was not nearly so bad as I had expected 
it would be. In many of the most dangerous places 
there is a substantial parapet, and trees and shrubs cover 
the sides of the steep hills, so that you are not sensible 
of the sheer precipice. 

The views from time to time over mountains, hills, 
and valleys strike one with wonder ; and we had not 
left Siliguri Station more than ten minutes when the 
white peak of Kinchin] unga appeared over the lofty 



70 A WINTER m IKDIA. 

neighboring mountains like an aerial sentinel. Passing 
between tea-gardens, with their white, myrtle- like flow- 
ers, and by many cotton-trees, the striking red blossom 
of which yields a coarse material which the natives 
use, we soon reached real jungle, and now remarked the 
wonderful change which has come over the features of 
the people — we seemed all at once to have got among 
Kalmucks. 

It would amuse a London-and-North-"Western man to 
see the miserable hut which serves as the first station- 
house on the Darjeeling-Himalaya line. At this point 
it begins rapidly to ascend through a forest of exceeding 
beauty, many of the trees being very lofty, some of 
them having a canopy of flowers, a,nd others covered 
with creepers of strange and weird -like shapes. There 
is a cart-track alongside the train-line, and every now 
and then you come upon stations to permit of convey- 
ances passing each other, like those on the Suez Canal. 
There are a good many villages and shanties for the 
workmen who are employed in great numbers in repair- 
ing and altering the line. Occasionally you steam 
through a crowded bazaar, and the curves well merit the 
American's description. 

Khersiong, surrounded on all hands by tea-gardens, is 
a bustling place ; and we found the bazaars crowded by 
men, women, and children of all the multifarious races 
which inhabit this part of Central Asia. The main 
street is only a few feet wide ; but the steam-car puffs 
along the centre of it ; and it would be difficult for a 



THE TEA-PLANTATIOKS, DARJEELING, 77 

person who lias never been out of Europe to imagine the 
scene at the market-place when we started after break- 
fast. 

^epaul, Thibet, Sikkim, and Bhotan were all within 
sight from points on these lofty elevations ; and hun- 
dreds of the races which dwell there are to be found em • 
ployed on the railway, or on those great plantations of 
tea which are accomplishing almost a revolution in this 
remote portion of British territory. 

Our engine had to stop several times, in consequence 
of bad coal, and it was nearly six o'clock in the evening 
when we arrived at Meadow Bank, one of Mr. Doyle's 
hotel-bungalows, which he had opened expressly for our 
large party, it having been shut for the cold months, as 
that was not the season in Darjeeling. Unfortunately 
the weather had become cloudy at mid-day, and we 
arrived in a kind of mist, auguring ill for a sight of the 
snowy ranges on the morrow. 

We were up, however, betimes. At 6 a.m. the au- 
thorities pronounced the expedition to the hill from 
which the view is best seen undesirable ; but at 7 
o'clock there was a lift in the rolling clouds, the ponies 
were at the door, and I resolved to ride at least as far 
as the cantonment of Jellahbahar ; the commandant of 
which. Colonel Koberts, had kindly come down the 
evening before and offered to accompany us in the morn- 
ing. About half way up the acclivity which leads to his 
station I turned round on my saddle, and there, far up 
in the heavens, dense masses of clouds below them, were 



78 A WINTER IK INDIA. 

the Himalayan peaks, which 1 had so often longed to 
see. There was a time of comparative darkness again 
when we stopped at the Colonel's bnngalow ; but he, 
who had been asked to take care of ns by Lieutenant- 
Colonel Kinloch, Younger, of Logic, and who showed us/ 
every attention during our stay at Darjeeling, was cheery 
and willing to do anything we wanted, and did not dis- 
courage my determination to go on at all hazards. So 
we descended to the tram-line at the first station, and 
then put our horses to face the steep path which con- 
ducts to the top of Senchal, 8163 feet high, on which 
appeared conspicuously many lofty chimneys of deserted 
barracks, looking like ancient monuments. The bar- 
racks were condemned by the Public Works — or, as they 
call it in India, the Public Waste — Department, because 
the chimneys were unsafe, and they alone remain to tell 
the tale. 

This is the highest point which travellers usually 
reach ; but the Colonel shook his head when I asked if 
you really saw from it Mount Everest, the loftiest moun- 
tain in the world. ^' Tiger Hill," he said, '^is the 
place," pointing to a wooded eminence three hundred 
and fifty feet higher. '' Then up we go," I replied, and 
in a very short time we were at the cairn on its summit, 
in the presence of a prospect which I confess fairly took 
away my breath. 

Nothing that I had ever seen made me feel such a 
sense of awe. The clouds had passed away from that 
amazing Kinchinjunga group, and there stood revealed, 



THE TEA-PLANTATION-S, DARJEELIl^G. 79 

apparently quite near, but really forty-five miles off, the 
stupendous mountain, 28,156 feet high. On its right, 
looking toward us, first Kabru, 24,015, and then the 
sloping peak of Junnu, 25,311. On the other side of 
the towering giant rose Pandim, 22,017, l^arsing, 
19,146, and the loveliest of all, a sugar-loaf of dazzling 
unbroken whiteness, 22,581, for which the surveyors 
have not yet found a name, but which appears on the 
maps as " D. 2." We stood there for an hour rapt in 
admiration. Never before had I seen such a sublime 
prospect, and never can I hope to see such a one again. 
There are many views of the Alps, especially of the Ber- 
nese Oberland, which are more beautiful, perhaps more 
varied, but in point of immensity they are not for a 
moment to be compared to this. We were standing on- 
the top of a hill twice the height of Ben Kevis, and 
facing a mountain seven times higher than the highest in 
Scotland. There was something almost unearthly about 
it ; I felt a kind of creeping coldness, and could hardly 
persuade myself that these towers and pinnacles were 
part of the earth on which we dwell. Then far away in 
the east were more vast mountains, capped by Donkia, 
23,187, the highest peak in Bhotan ; and in the other 
direction the clouds kindly favored us by lifting two or 
three times, and giving us glimpses of the summit of 
Mount Everest, one hundred and thirty miles off. It 
was a day in my life never to be forgotten ; the farthest 
point in our journey, the accomplishment of a desire 
long secretly cherished. 1 had seen the highest of the 



80 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

Himalayas in all tlieir grandeur, and I knew that there 
was no prospect in the universe so magnificent as that of 
Kinchinjunga's snowy range from the point on which I 
stood. 

There was hoar-frost every morning during our stay 
at Darjeeling, and although the sun was powerful at 
mid-day, we required all our warm clothing and wraps. 
The scenery on the mountain-sides a good deal resembles 
that at Men tone and Monte Generoso, but on a far more 
stupendous scale — that is, the declivities are four or five 
times higher, while the lofty trees unknown to Europe, 
and graceful bamboos, constantly remind you that you 
are in Asia. At almost every turn you find houses and 
branches of trees covered with httle flags of white and 
red paper and calico ; these are Buddhist prayers, and 
the inscription on one and all of them is the same — four 
words of doubtful interpretation being repeated over and 
over again. I thought how striking an illustration this 
was of the words, '^ Use not vain repetitions as the 
heathen do." 

We visited a celebrated Buddhist temple, and saw the 
circular praying-machines at work ; it was but a better 
kind of hut after all, considerably adorned, and not so 
dirty as the Hindoo temples. Then we walked round 
the summit of the hill on which most of the bungalows 
stand, under great banks of foliage — magnificent tree- 
ferns in hundreds — and were struck with the number of 
tall stately trees which had creepers almost to the top ; 
the great pothos parasite, several specimens of which we 



THE TBA.-PLANTATIONS, DARJEELING. 81, 

saw, never fails to kill its victim in the end. Rounding 
the western extremity of the hill, we obtained the best 
view of the settlement from what is called Edgar's 
j'olly — why, I really don't know, because there is no 
point from which you could command so well the whole 
of Darjeeling. There are no roads for driving in this 
hill station ; you must ride on a pony, or be carried on a 
dandy — a kind of couch on poles. 

The people here complain very much of the Chinese 
resident ministers at the various courts in Central Asia 
using their influence, and successfully, to keep the trade of 
all these countries in the hands of their own nation, and 
to prevent any extension of commerce with British India. 
Every one seems to have an interest of some kind or 
another in those tea plantations which are rapidly cover- 
ing the hillsides of that portion of Sikkim belonging to 
US. The following is a true story, and makes one's 
mouth water. A certain doctor, about to retire from the 
service, was tempted in an unguarded moment to offer 
£2000 ($9680) for a plantation, when times were at their 
very worst. Hardly had the auctioneer knocked it down 
to him when he became terrified at his own audacity ; 
and greatly was he relieved when a general officer stand- 
ing by offered to go halves with him. That estate now 
pays £10,000 ($48,400) a year clear profit, and the 
worthy pair are living at home in luxury. 

I have been reading Sir Joseph Hooker's '' Himalayan 
Journals," where he gives a most vivid description of 
Darjeehng and its neighborhood, and in which, long 



82 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

"before the days of the railroad, or the discovery of 
Mount Everest, he prophesied the great future which 
every one now sees is certainly before it. This interest- 
ing book is now out of print, and a new edition urgently 
required. 

All the carrying work in the place is done by coolies, 
and one is distressed to see very small children literally 
groaning under heavy loads of stones. You remark the 
great variety of races inhabiting the place : Lepchas, the 
aborigines of Sikkim, who believe in spirits good and 
bad, but celebrate no religious rites ; Limboos, who are 
Buddhists ; Moormis, grave, powerful men, originally 
from Thibet. The gold and silver ornaments worn by 
nearly all of them cannot fail to strike the stranger. 

One morning five of us on ponies rode down to the 
Ging tea plantation, twenty- five hundred feet below 
Darjeeling, to visit Mr. Durnford who manages it, and 
who is a friend of my friend, Lady Crossley. The tea- 
plant is rather a pretty evergreen, resembling the myrtle 
or sweet bay more than any other shrub we have at 
home. It is not allowed to grow more than a foot and a 
half high. It was pruning season, and we could dis- 
tinctly smell the tea aroma as we passed the gangs of 
Nepaulese workmen plying their knives. During De- 
cember, January, and February they weed the ground 
and prune the plants. The leaves are picked in the nine 
remaining months : those on the very top, more like 
little stems than leaves, constituting the Pekoe, those 
immediately below them the Souchong-pekoe, and those 



THE TEA-PLANTATIONS, DARJEELING. 83 

nearer the centre of the bush the Souchong of com- 
merce. They are all heated, rolled — first by machinery 
and secondly by hand — and then dried together, and 
afterward passed through wires which separate the three 
qualities just mentioned. Then all imperfections are 
picked out by women, after which the tea is packed in 
80-lb. boxes made of toon- wood, from Independent Sik- 
kim, and carried up to Darjeeling by coolies, to be trans- 
mitted by railroad. The wages paid are good : 6r. 8a. (ru- 
pee = 60 cents ; anna = l^d. sterling = 3 cents — $2.Y4) 
for men, 4r. 8a. ($2.24) for women, and 3r. for children, 
per week. They are housed but not fed by the proprie- 
tors, who, however, generally give them plots of land on 
which to raise Indian corn, on which, and on rice, they 
subsist. The plants require no irrigation, as sufficient 
rain falls during the rainy season to nourish them. 
Their only enemy is the red spider, which has lately at- 
tacked them just as the phylloxera has done the vines in 
France. The new gardens are all adopting a hybrid 
between the Assam and the China plant, the former giv- 
ing strength, the latter flavor. Mr. Durnford gave us at 
luncheon the only good curry I have tasted in India. 

There were peals of thunder in the mountains as we 
rode up the hill, and at last once more in the evening we 
heard the sound of rain. '^ The clear shining after 
rain." I believed in that, consequently rose very early 
in the morning, and arrived at the point of view just as 
the first rays of the sun gilded the peak of Kinchin- 
junga. One after another, in proportion to their height, 



84 A WHITER IK IN^DIA. 

the other summits were lighted up till, by and by, the 
whole mighty range of the eastern Himalayas for two 
himdred miles stood revealed in unclonded splendor. 
The prospect is engraved in my mind forever. 

A great treat was awaiting us this morning. Mr. 
Prestage, the managing-director of the tram-line, had 
arranged that we should be ' ^ troUied ' ' down the moun- 
tains instead of going in the train ; so at Ghoom station, 
which is liigher than Darjeeling, and from which to the 
plain there is a continuous descent, we found two little 
tram-cars fastened together, and Mr. Walker, one of the 
officials — a Scotchman, of course — who managed the 
brakes, and took us down in the most skilful manner, at 
the rate of fifteen miles an hour, stopping an hour for 
breakfast at the charming little Clarendon Hotel at 
Khersiong, from which we had our last look of the 
gigantic Kinchinjunga. The motion of the trollies was 
the most delightful I ever experienced in travelling, and 
without the locomotive you see the scenery far better. Its 
grandeur and variety struck us more than when going up. 
, At Siliguri station I saw a considerable quantity of 
very superior jute, which had been brought on ox-carts 
for forty miles. "W"e found here waiting us an excellent 
dinner, and three large sleeping-carriages for our night 
journey on the Northern Bengal Railway. The East 
Indian Company refused to give ua any facilities what- 
ever, but the managers of all the other railroads were ex- 
ceedingly polite, and their liberality will certainly be an 
encouragement to travellers. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CALCUTTA, ITS BUILDINGS, TRADE, AND LIFE. 

The comparative cleanliness of the masses in India 
strikes me very forcibly. They are far superior in this 
respect to the inhabitants of Southern Europe, and their 
villages contrast most advantageously with those in 
Egypt and Syria. You find them performing their ablu- 
tions, with remarkable delicacy and propriety too, at 
every pond and brook ; and, excepting at Benares, we 
have seen or smelt very little to offend. 

The station-master at Siliguri told me that the fame 
of our large party — the only family one which ever 
travelled for pleasure in India — had for weeks preceded 
us, and that a native magistrate who had heard of, but 
had not believed in our numbers, had ridden eight miles 
to verify the report with his own eyes. 

The great difiiculty which all employers of European 
labor on railways, tea plantations, in mills, and elsewhere, 
have to contend against is the frequency with which even 
their most skilled and best servants get drunk. Perhaps 
they do it to drown care, or from weakness, or disap- 
pointment ; but the fact remains, and it is a serious draw- 
back to national progress. I find myself often thinking 
that, after all, India is a kind of banishment. No doubt 



86 A WINTER IN" INDIA. 

salaries and wages are high ; it may be, in a good many- 
instances, too high. Certainly, people there can drive 
their carriages and enjoy many luxuries which could not 
be afforded at home ; and we have met not a few cheer- 
ful souls who declare that life here is much preferable to 
life in England ; but the general impression is the other 
way. Many little things make it stronger in my mind 
every week, and I feel less inclined than ever to think 
that Europeans of all classes employed in India, either in 
the public or private service, ought to be grudged their 
little luxuries. 

Just after day-dawn we reached the Ganges, two and 
a half miles broad, very shallow at the present season, 
and crossed it in the tidy, American-looking steamer 
Vampire. What a multitude of birds we saw that fore- 
noon — vultures, kites, herons, cranes, kingfishers, minas, 
pheasants, pigeons, bee-eaters, and countless others, the 
names of which I do not know, of varied and beautiful 
plumage, frequenting land and water. On many fields 
red capsicums were spread out to dry in the sun. In 
this part of Bengal you do not find that abject poverty 
which is so noticeable in other provinces of India. The 
houses of the poor are better, and they themselves seem 
better fed and clothed. 

Between 12 and 1 we were in the Sealdah station, and 
this time went to the Great Eastern Hotel, a noisy, 
roughish place, but the best in Calcutta, where we re- 
mained for three days, preparatory to taking possession 
of 12 Elysium Row, which a fellow-passenger from Eng- 



CALCUTTA, ITS BUILDINGS, TRADE, AND LIFE. 87 

land, Mr, Mackinnon, of the great shipping firm of Mac- 
kinnon, Mackenzie & Co., had with remarkable kindness 
placed at our disposal, for the celebration of a certain 
romantic marriage. 

What a remarkable place this Calcutta is ! The 
crowds, blocks, ox-carts, running coolies, dust and heat, 
in the busiest portion of it, overpower me. I observe in 
the weekly shipping list in the Indian Daily News for 
22d January, that there are no fewer than twenty-two 
large ocean-going steamers and seventy-eight sailing- 
ships from foreign ports lying in the river. Few people 
know that £30,000,000 sterling ($145,200,000) worth of 
goods are annually exported from Great Britain to India ; 
that of the annual £75,000,000 ($363,000,000) worth of 
cotton goods exported, £21,000,000 ($101,640,000) worth 
go to India, and that its foreign trade now amounts to 
very nearly £125,000,000 ($605,000,000). 

AVe spent Saturday afternoon with Mr. Heriot, son of 
the late respected Sheriff of Forfarshire, who manages 
Howrah Jute Mills, on the other side of the river, and 
were glad to hear from him, and from Mr. Thom, of 
the Barnagore "Works, where 5000 people are employed, 
that there is no Sun day-work in any of these miUs ; and 
that, taking relays and other things into consideration, 
the people do not labor more than ten and a half hours 
a day. 

I was glad to hear the Rev. Mr. Gillan, of the Estab- 
lished Church of Scotland, preach in Union Chapel on 
Sunday morning. 



88 A WIKTER Iiq- liyTDIA. 

On Monday morning I went with Mr. Payne, of tlie 
London Missionary Society, to see the idol-worship at 
Kahghat — the landing-place of Kali, from which Cal- 
cutta derives its name. It is now a suburb, situated on 
a branch of the Hooghly more sacred than the river 
itself, contains the holiest shrine in Bengal, and is as 
dirty as it is holy. There I found hundreds of poor 
bleating kids, with their legs cruelly tied together, 
which they first immerse in the sacred stream and then 
sacrifice before a hideous image of Kali, which was ex- 
posed for my inspection at the request of Mr. Payne, 
who is much beloved, notwithstanding his constant 
preaching of Christianity, by these poor people, and has 
so much influence with them that he induced a priest for 
one rupee to give me his upper garment, on which are 
written all the names of the Hindoo divinities. There 
also I beheld abominations, which cannot be recorded, 
confirmatory of the worst accounts given of iniquitous 
idolatry. 

My next visit was to a very different place, not far off 
from the first, where YOO young men are receiving a gen- 
eral and Christian education of a very high order from 
the missionaries of the London Society. I examined one 
class, who in a few months were to matriculate for the 
university, and found them read and answer well. It is 
impossible that the teaching in these institutions should 
not produce a signal and widespread effect by and by. 

Since the foregoing sentence was written, I have had 
an opportunity of visiting the educational institutions 



CALCUTTA, ITS BUILDII^GS, TRADE, AKD LIFE. 89 

coniiected witli the Established Churcli and the Free 
Church of Scotland, and also an exceedingly well-con- 
ducted Christian girls' school in a very poor locality, 
over which Mrs. Macdonald presides. Mr. Hastie, the 
principal of the General Assembly's scholastic establish- 
ment, was kind enough to conduct me through it ; and 
I was glad to see the various classes of perhaps the most 
flourishing seminary of the kind in all India. There are 
YOG boys at the school and 500 students in the college, 
which, with 200 scholars outside and 600 girls in a sepa- 
rate building, make no fewer than 2000 young people 
enjoying the advantage of an excellent education in Cal- 
cutta in connection with this church alone. Twenty- one 
youths out of the above number took the degree of B. A. 
at the last examination. The Free Church Mission had 
gone back a little ; but no one doubts that under its new 
head, Mr. Robertson, it will soon add to its present num- 
ber of 760. The Rev. Mr. Gillan, Presbyterian chaplain, 
and the Rev. Mr. Milne, Free Church clergyman, were 
good enough to accompany me, and I was interested to 
see the house where Dr. Duff so long lived and labored. 
I have now driven a great deal through Calcutta and 
its vicinity — which, by the way, is no joke, for the 
drivers, both of hackney carriages and of private vehi- 
cles, seem the worst in the world, and several accidents 
have taken place during our residence, two of them to 
friends of my own — and am much impressed with the 
magnitude of the place : the distances remind one of 
London. On the east of the Maidan are those spacious 



90 A WINTER IN- IlfDIA. 

and often splendid bungalows from which it derives its 
name of the City of Palaces ; but even close to them 
are little villages of native huts- — one might almost call 
them wigwams ; and although there are a considerable 
number of fine buildings, colleges, hospitals, Mohamme- 
dan seminaries, and lofty residences of rich Baboos scat- 
tered throughout the native portion of the city, the 
streets present a mean appearance, and must impress a 
stranger fresh from Europe very unfavorably. 

One evening we attended in Government House an 
investiture, first of the Star of India, and afterward of 
the Indian Empire, at the close of which Lady Ripon 
had a reception. More than a thousand people were 
present, and the majority of the native dignitaries were 
gorgeously attired, some of them displaying an almost 
fabulous amount of jewelry. All classes in Hindostan 
are exceedingly extravagant, especially in the matter of 
ornament. Poor people will ruin themselves for life on 
the occasion of a marriage by borrowing, for the purpose 
of display. Many folks have their whole fortune invest- 
ed in precious stones. The custom of Europeans is 
reckoned of little account in large towns, in comparison 
with that of rich natives, by jewellers and venders of 
articles of luxury. One rajah spent lately, in Calcutta, 
in two months, £360,000 ($1,742,400). 

It has been represented to me by men on whose judg- 
ment I rely, that British officers in India are required to 
do far too nmcli clerk and office work ; much time being 
occupied in drawing up comparatively useless returns, 



CAIfCUTTA, ITS BUILDIJ^GS, TRADE, AND LIFE. 91 

which might be more profitably employed in purely 
military duties. Several of them likewise complain to 
me of the extravagance of the Government in building 
so many new barracks of expensive kiln-dried bricks, 
with roofs of teak and other useless decorations, while 
in their opinion, the old buildings, of the same material 
as the bungalows, confessedly immensely cheaper, are in 
many respects also better. They knew that many of the 
latter had been condemned by the Sanitary Department ; 
but there are some facts and circumstances connected 
with this question which may necessitate a further in- 
quiry. 

An amusing anecdote in relation to this controversy 
was told to me. A distinguished Englishman travelling 
in the north-west thought he ought not to be contented 
with the testimony of officers, so he got up very early 
one morning and addressed a private soldier. " That is 
a very fine new barrack you inhabit." " Don't like it 
at all,' ' was the reply. " But why ?" he rejoined ; '' it 
has two stories, is exceedingly well built and arranged, 
and gets all the air that is going in this hot climate." 
''Can't bear it, notwithstanding," said the private. 
"That is curious," remarked the inquisitive stranger; 
'^ please tell me your reason." The man flatly refused 
for a long time ; but at last, yielding to entreaty, roared 
out, " If you must know, I hate it because, when I gets 
drunk I can't get up the d stairs." 

There is a somewhat delicate point which I do not 
like altogether to pass over, because excellent officers 



92 A WINTER 1^ INDIA. 

think it of some importance. Once a jear tlie troops are 
called out to cheer for the Empress of India ; and the 
native soldiers complain that while their European com- 
rades are paid for doing so, they are not. Surely this is 
an invidious distinction. Might not the payment be 
done away with ? Or, better still, the whole ceremony 
dispensed with altogether ? 

On Friday the Rev. Mr. Johnson, of the London Mis- 
sionary Society, asked a large number of native Chris- 
tians to meet me at an evening party, when several 
speeches were made, and 1 addressed the audience, con- 
sisting of about one hundred, belonging to all sections 
of Protestants, and constituting really a Holy Catholic 
Church. 

We must keep in mind that at the great educational 
institutions which I have been visiting there are few or 
no idlers. Only those who are anxious to learn attend, 
and their principal ambition is to get a good English 
education. This makes the task of the teachers compar- 
atively easy. 



CHAPTER X. 

INDIA MADRAS — COONOOK. 

The weather is now getting decidedly warm — warmer 
than usual, people tell me. On Saturday I did little but 
arrange for our departure, and go down in a steam- 
launch to the Botanical Gardens, where we drank the 
water from unripe cocoanuts under the shade of the 
celebrated banian-tree. A last drive on the Maidan, 
and our party separated for a fortnight. I was one of 
those who slept on board the P. and O. steamer Brin- 
disi at Garden Reach, which at daybreak dropped down 
the river, bound for Madras. Slept^ indeed — ^the mos- 
quitoes took good care to prevent that ! They attacked 
us with a ferocity unheard of. 

Although the banks of the Hooghly below Calcutta 
are flat, it is, nevertheless, a pretty sail. Yessels of all 
sizes and shapes, factories and plantations, give one con- 
stantly something to look at. At a point called, in vul- 
gar parlance, the James and Mary, two large rivers flow 
into it, and the place reminded me much of various 
reaches on the Mississippi. Our pilot is a big man ; 
gets about £2000 ($9680) per annum ; and we were all 
greatly disappointed when, at mid-day, a little below 



94 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

Diamond Harbor, at Kalkee, lie anchored for the night ! 
And such a night ! I tried the music-room, the saloon, 
the deck — all in vain. Myriads of mosquitoes followed, 
flew at, fastened on me in that damp, washing-house-like 
atmosphere, made my face and hands hideous, and ren- 
dered sleep a mockery. 

At 2.30 A.M. Captain Lee (I wish all commanders of 
mail -steamers were as courteous and jolly, as well as 
omnipresent and attentive to their duties) and I met on 
deck in the fog ; and it was a kind of cold comfort to 
find him as miserable as I was. At 8 a.m. the mist was 
still dense ; and although only fifty-three miles from 
Calcutta, we had a close shave in getting off at all. 
Another half -hour's darkness would have detained us on 
that horrible bar for twenty-four hours more ; but just 
as we sat down to breakfast the sun faintly appeared, 
the anchor was taken up, we pushed into a bank of fog, 
and emerged on the other side in a clear atmosphere, and 
proceeded at full speed down the great river, passing the 
outer light-ship at 3.30. 

There is good pig-sticking on the right and tiger- 
shooting on the left bank of this Ganges mouth. 

The BrindiHi is a fine ship, only thirteen months old, 
not very fast — what P. and O. vessel is ? their Indian 
contract is a premium to slowness — but comfortable ; 
3500 tons burden ; fitted with electric bells ; steam steer- 
ing gear, etc.; and, as '^ like master like man," all are 
civil and obliging on board. How delicious is this 
Indian Ocean ! The air is heavenly ! At noon on the 



IN^DIA — MADRAS — COOKOOR. 95 

last day of January we had run 270 miles in twenty- 
four hours, and were 422 miles from Madras. 

I have been reading on the hurricane-deck all the 
forenoon Mr. Bose's book, *^ The Hindoos as They Are," 
and am much interested in his testimony to the great 
change going on. Here are a few sentences, corrobora- 
tive, I humbly think, of the impressions recorded from 
time to time in these notes : 

*' The Hindoo schoolboy may be said from the day he entered 
a public school to enter on the first stage of his intellectual disin- 
tegration. The books that are put into his hands gradually open 
his eyes and expand his intellect ; he learns to discern what is 
right and what is wrong ; he reasons within himself and finds 
that what he had learned at home was not true, and is led by de- 
grees to renounce his old ideas." 

*' The progress of education has opened a new era in the social 
institutions of the country, and an enlightened proletariat is now- . 
adays more esteemed than an empty-titled Dullaputty." 

*' Morally, socially, and intellectually, the enlightened Bengalees 
are assuredly the Athenians of Hindostan. Their growing intel- 
ligence and refined taste — the outcome of English education — 
have imbued them with a healthier ideal of moral excellence than 
any other section of the Indian population." 

*' As English schools and colleges are multiplying in every nook 
and corner of the empire, more liberal ideas and principles are 
being imbibed by the Hindoo youths, which bid fair in process of 
time to exercise a regenierating influence on the habits of the 
people. Idolatry, and its necessary concomitant, priestcraft, is 
fast losing its hold on their minds." 

* ' The gigantic strides that English education has made in India 
within a short time have been the wonder of the age, the founda- 
tion-rock of her ultimate emancipation, socially, morally, and in- 
tellectually." 

" Some fifty or sixty years back, when English educatioji could 
scarcely be said to have commenced the work of reformation, or 
rather disintegration . . ." 



96 A WIN^TER IN- IIS-DIA. 

" It is worthy of remark that though the distinction of caste 
still exerts its influence on all the important concerns of our social 
and domestic life, it is nevertheless fast losing its prestige in the 
estimation of the enlightened Hindoos." 

*' When Hindoo society is being profoundly convulsed by 
heterodox opinions . . ." 

The other side of the picture is, that the native intel- 
lect, quick in early years, stops developing very soon ; 
and few attempt anything more after acquiring sufficient 
English and general information to insure them employ- 
ment. The medical schools, they tell me, are becoming 
a rapidly-increasing educational power. 

The 1st of Februaiy has come, and with it great heat. 
At noon we were in latitude 14° 48', longitude 82° 19' ; 
and, having run 2Y2 miles, were only 150 miles from 
Madras, and consequently had to slacken speed, as we 
could not go in before daylight. There is a decided 
swell, but no air, far less wind. We have a number of 
coolies in the forecastle, returning from Demerara. 
Some of them have been twenty years there. 

I rose at 5.30 on Thursday morning, and saw the 
revolving light at Madras harbor. By and by the mist 
rolled away, the sun rose, and a long line of white 
houses, a shattered breakwater, and many ships at anchor 
showed us that our voyage was terminated. Then what 
a row the naked crews of the shore-boats made : greater, 
I think, than I had ever witnessed, even in the Levant. 
Catamarans, constructed merely of three logs tied to- 
gether, were paddled round the ship when the anchor 
went down, and in a few moments the deck was crowded 



II^DIA — MADRAS — COOI^OOR. 97 

by porters and boatmen scrambling for custom. An 
A.D.C. from Government House delivered us from 
these Philistines ; and after a drive of eight miles in the 
delicious morning air, we were welcomed at Guindj 
Park House by my distinguished friend Mr. Grant Duff, 
whose cultivated intellect, large official experience, love 
of work, and knowledge of India cannot fail to be of 
essential service to the inhabitants of the Presidency. 

Madras is not a town, but a population of 400,000 
scattered over twenty-seven miles. Its palatial build- 
ings, wide avenues, and open spaces surprise me. It 
has quite the air of a capital ; and trees as well as 
costumes remind us that we are a good deal nearer the 
equator. 

Guindy Park is five miles in circumference ; and we 
look over its spreading trees to rounded and peaked hills 
in the distance — a refreshing prospect after the dull 
monotony of North India's plains. There are cobras 
within the compound ; and only last week they killed, 
close to the house, a Kussell viper — the most poisonous 
of all snakes. The beauty and variety of the gardens 
here are celebrated. The bread-fruit, cocoanut, palms, 
jack-fruit, and many other striking forest trees, plants, 
and flowers interest me much. The park is full of deer, 
and also of jackals. 

We drove about until we could no longer see on the 
evening of our arrival ; and there was a large dinner- 
party, attended, among others, by the Maharajah of Tra- 
vancore ; and a number of Hindoo and Mohammedan 



98 A WINTER IN" IKDIA. 

gentlemen came afterward, when the lawn and terrace 
were illuminated — a verj pretty sight. 

Next morning early Mr. Grant Duff and I drove to 
St. Thomas's Mount, the artillery cantonment ; and after 
breakfast I went into Madras, called on Messrs. Arbuth- 
not & Co., and from the top of their offices had a very 
commanding view of the native quarter, called Black- 
town, the fort, port, and shipping. Before sundown we 
had a long drive through paddy-fields and dense masses 
of palms, paid a visit to the Botanical Gardens — where 
there is much that is curious and interesting — to Govern- 
ment House, near the sea, and to the stables at Guindy. 
Nearly all the carriage-horses in India — Walers as they 
are called — come from Australia. It is now very hot ^ 
and although occasionally the sea-breeze comes up, I 
begin to wish for a cooler atmosphere. 

On Saturday evening we drove to the artillery parade- 
ground, at the foot of St. Thomas's Mount, where a 
large company of Europeans and natives had assembled 
to witness athletic sports, and a very lively and pictu- 
resque sight it was. The horse artillery, driving through 
gates and over hurdles, reflected the greatest credit on 
the batteries. Then we had a dinner-party of forty -four, 
a ball, and another illumination in the evening : our last 
in Madras. I would rather live in Guindy Park than in 
any other house which I have seen in India. 

On Sunday I was really afraid to go to church, so 
powerful were the sun's rays. We left at 6 p.m. in the 
mail-train for the hills. The station at Madras is a very 



Iiq-DIA — MADRAS— -COONOOR. 99 

imposing one of red brick, with a lofty tower, perhaps 
the most conspicuous object in the place. Nothing could 
exceed the kindness we experienced at the hands of the 
officials in reserving carriages for us, keeping them wait- 
ing where we stopped, and showing an example to their 
brethren of the East Indian. We all slept well, as there 
was less motion than on any line by which we have trav- 
elled in the country. They have adopted an excellent 
plan of selling dinner and breakfast tickets when you pay 
your fare ; they thus know and can wire how many are 
to be provided for, and have likewise a protection 
against dishonest '^butlers," as they call them at the 
refreshment -rooms. 

We dined at Arconum, and when I awoke we were 
passing through a very rich country with luxuriant crops, 
although the cultivation seemed of an exceedingly prim- 
itive description. Many women were working in the 
fields. By and by ranges of peaked hills came in sight, 
and we stopped for breakfast at Poothanoor, where a 
branch to the hills joins the Bey poor main line. The 
viands were poor, and the waiting was simply scandalous. 
Most of us had to help ourselves. 

Just before Coimbatoor station there is a view of re- 
markable beauty — a lake or ' ^ tank' ' in the foreground, 
palms beyond, and behind rugged, jagged peaks of infi- 
nite variety. Strange and picturesque indeed was the 
whole scene — the gay colors of the peasants' scanty gar- 
ments, the thick aloe hedges — everything so different 
from Northern India. There are quantities of the 



100 A WIN'TER IN INDIA. 

prickly pear here, many plantations of the graceful 
castor-oil plant, rice, grain, beans, tobacco, and cotton, 
with rows of fine forest trees. Then the line descends 
throngh a waste-land region into a kind of basin, and 
terminates at Matipolliam, where we were transferred 
into three '' tongas" — a kind of rough, low, two-wheeled 
dog-cart, drawn by two ponies, which are attached, not 
by traces, but by a short high pole with a bar across 
their backs. In these we reached Coonoor, upward of 
twenty miles, in 3J hours ; the ponies were changed 
four times and trotted all the way, although the rise is 
more than 6000 feet. The road was crowded with carts, 
oxen, and coolies, and many a sharp curve and turn 
made us quake, as in most places there is no parapet. 
The vegetation is exceedingly varied in color, luxuriant 
and beautiful, and every now and then we had extensive 
views over the great plain below, studded with isolated 
hills like islands. 

Four or five miles from our destination we saw coffee 
plantations for the first time, and before 2 o'clock were 
in Gray's Hotel, a pretty bungalow — like a cottage in 
Devonshire — embowered in roses and heliotrope, on a 
hill 600 feet above Coonoor (itself 6100 above the sea), 
and commanding a wide prospect of mountains wild as 
those of Scotland. The first thing that strikes me in 
reaching this very beautiful and homelike place is the 
extent to which the eucalyptus appears on every slope. 
They have been planted principally for fuel, but also for 
shade. Mr. Jamieson, who takes charge of the gardens 



Il^DIA — MADRAS — COON^OOR. 101 

and plantations at Ootakamund, and who has been most 
attentive to us, tells me that trees which he put in only 
four years ago are already sixty feet high. He says that 
Australian and Tasmanian trees flourish in these hills, 
but not the deciduous trees or pines of Britain. 

We spent Tuesday morning very pleasantly on Mr. 
Allan's coffee plantation of Glenmore, where he employs 
200 men, all Canarese, from Mysore. They go home 
for about two months in the slack season, and get 6r. 8a. 
($3.24) per week — an excellent wage. The coffee-plant 
is kept at a height of 3 J feet, has leaves a little like a 
Portugal laurel, and a very thick stem, resembling that 
of a tree several years old. The berries are red when 
ripe, and called cherries. The bean is separated frona 
the husk by simple machinery, driven by a water-wheel. 
The leaf disease, which has caused such havoc in the 
Ceylon plantations, has only threatened to appear here ; 
as yet no serious damage has been done. 

In the afternoon we drove to see the great view over 
the South Indian plain from the summit of the mighty 
slopes of the !N"eilgherries. There are three principal 
points — Lamb's Rock, Lady Canning's Seat, and Dol- 
phin's Nose. The narrow and rough road, in driving 
along which we experienced much difficulty when we 
met ox-carts, passes sometimes through thick tropical 
vegetation, where creepers of many kinds abound, the 
crimson flower of the rhododendron tree — not shrub — 
being at this season conspicuous. Sometimes the road 
winds round unfenced promontories with yawning gulfs 



102 A WINTER IK INDIA. 

below, and again looks down on tea-gardens planted 
wherever the ground is not actually precipitous. The 
yiews of the hills and plain far below are very grand. 

A company of Todas, the aboriginal and fast dying 
out pastoral inhabitants of the range, were sent to see us 
at sundown. They are a very peculiar people, practise 
infanticide and polyandry, and live in low huts into 
which they have to crawl. They refuse to do any work 
but tend cattle. 



CHAPTER XI. 

CONJEVEEAM- — DEPAKTUEE FKOM MADEAS. 

On Wednesday morning we left for Ootakanmnd, 
passing the race-course and the spacious Wellington Bar- 
racks ; and after leaving the plantations of Coonoor 
emerging into a bleak, red, treeless country very much 
resembling Algeria. The road is well made. We 
changed horses often, trotted all the way up, and came 
down at a rattling pace, drawn sometimes by mere 
ponies. 1 never was charged so high a bill in any part 
of the world as that of the Madras Carrying Company. 

At Charing Cross, Colonel lago, head of the Woods 
Department, met us and took us first to Government 
House, not a successful building, where I was anxious 
to see the room in which my lamented friend Mr. Adam 
died, and I afterward reverently visited his grave in the 
new churchyard, a pretty spot, o\^erlooking the lake. 

The Botanical Gardens are full of interesting trees, 
shrubs, and flowers. One of the loveliest of the last is of 
that detestable medicine called jalap. The Chinese rice- 
paper tree is remarkable. I took away with me a por- 
tion of the stem from which paper is made. On a hill 
above Coonoor there is a wood looking at a distance ex- 
actly like a plantation of Scotch firs seventy years old : 



104 A WINTER IK INDIA. 

it is eucalyptus, aged eleven. The cinchona planta- 
tions of Government on the ^N'eilgherries, one of which 
adjoins the garden at Ootakamund, are very important 
and prosperous ; they cover 800 acres, cost last year in 
labor £96,000 ($464:, 640), and their gross produce was 
£300,000 ($1,452,000). The value of the bark after the 
wound has been medicated by wet moss, is twice as great 
as before the knife has been first applied. We lunched 
at the Cedars, the beautiful residence of Mr. Barlow, 
collector of the district, the drawing-room window of 
which commands a fine view of the Kundah range ; this 
is more picturesque than the huge rounded Doddabett, 
8622 feet above the sea, which rises behind Government 
House. There are many tigers in these mountains, and 
Mr. Barlow had in his hall a magnificent head of a Sam- 
bur stag, which he shot six weeks ago, close by. 

'' Ooty," as it is familiarly called, is 7300 feet above 
the sea. I distinctly perceived the rarefaction of the 
air. We returned by a very pretty drive past the Law- 
rence Asylum for Boys, which joins the main road at the 
top of the hill, where you look down both on Ootaka- 
mund and Coonoor. 

Mr. Jamieson kindly sent down to the Government 
gardens at the foot of the hills for mangosteeu for our 
dessert. I thought the fruit delicious, like a very deli- 
cate French confection. 

Kext morning we descended the ghaut at a tremendous 
pace, and at a sudden turn the vehicle which conveyed 
me collided with a tonga on its way to Coonoor. The 



CONJEVERAM — DEPARTURE FROM MADRAS. 105 

crash was alarming, but no damage resulted. Matipol- 
liam is a veritable Gehenna for heat ; but at the station 
house there were washing-rooms, kept scrupulously clean, 
and we enjoyed an excellent luncheon at the adjacent 
dak bungalow. "We did not penetrate farther south in 
India than Poothanoor junction — about 700 miles from 
the equator. 

We dined at Salem, and had a miserable hour at Arco- 
num, between 4 and 5 o'clock in the morning, stowing 
away our effects in the left luggage-room — as the station- 
master refused to allow them to remain in our reserved 
carriage — -and in endeavoring to get washed. 

At 5.15 A.M. we left, in the Southern India narrow- 
gauge railway, for Conjeveram, seventeen miles off, and, 
when we arrived there, fancied that some celebration 
was going on, as the station was crowded with servants 
in red liveries, policemen, native magistrates, etc., and 
two or three hundred spectators lined its approaches. 
My surprise was great when, on stepping out, wreaths of 
yellow and pink chrysanthemums were thrown round 
our necks, strange bird-like devices, chiefly of the same 
material, and limes were placed in our hands, and all 
bowed low to do us honor. Few Europeans visit Con- 
jeveram ; hence the gaping and admiring crowd ! Tea 
was ready for us at the station ; and then we set out to 
visit the temples, in covered carts drawn by oxen, which 
trotted along merrily. 

Conjeveram is a clean, well-kept place, with wide 
streets and a thriving population. One who has trav- 



106 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

elled in Eastern Europe and Western Asia remarks how 
few deformed people there are in India in comparison. 
The sight of a cripple and a woman afflicted with ele- 
phantiasis during our drive reminded me of this. At 
one turn of the road we came on a huge car, exactly like 
that of Juggernaut, and like it, also, happily laid up in 
ordinary. "We likewise visited an immense tank, one of 
the most sacred in India, containing a mixture of holy 
waters. 

We first drove to Yishnu's temple, in Little Kanchi, 
and were received by a crowd of priests and spectators, 
fireworks and music, and entertained with a nautch-girl 
dance, after which we inspected the wealth of jewels, 
and had all the hideous idols brought out to view. The 
haU of pillars, in the centre of the inclosure, is very 
remarkable for carved horses and hippogriffs ; and the 
whole scene was one of the most strange and striking 
which we witnessed in India. The other famous temple 
— that dedicated to Seva the Destroyer — has a gopura, 
or great tower, 181 feet high- —the highest in Southern 
India — and there we were received in a similar manner ; 
but its buildings did not strike us as so curious as those 
of the first ; and thirty years ago it was robbed of its 
principal jewels. Its frightful idols are carried in pro- 
cession on high days. They give one a sad idea of 
heathenism — its brutalizing and degrading nature. 
" Jehovah dwells not in temples made with hands." 
May the millions of Hindostan soon realize the blessings 
of a purer, holier, and manlier religion ! 



COlirjEVERAM— DEPARTURE FROM MADRAS. 107 

Formerly these temples were managed by the British 
Government, and by gifts to them officials foolishly 
thought to propitiate the Hindoo people. The Mutiny 
and other events roughly opened our eyes to the ineffi- 
cacy of such a cowardly policy ; and now this idol-wor- 
ship has no connection with the state. Complaint has 
recently been made that the new law in this respect has 
been infringed in the case of a well-known temple in the 
Punjaub, but I have reason to believe that what took 
place there has been disapproved at headquarters, and 
that no such breach of the order will be permitted in 
future. It may also be well for the central Government 
to keep an eye on those in authority who refuse to em- 
ploy natives if they happen to profess Christianity. 

Our visits to the temples over, we were driven to the 
Tahsildar's bungalow, to which servants, with all the 
materials requisite for a sumptuous breakfast and lunch- 
eon, had been sent all the way from Madras by the 
thoughtful care of Mr. Grant Duff and his genial staff, 
who had, I need scarcely add, likewise given orders to 
the officials to receive us at the station and pay us every 
attention. This is the only place we have been in in 
India without seeing a European or even a Eurasian. 
The gentleman who took charge of us was the Deputy 
Tahsildar of Chingleput district — Mr. Damodera Mao- 
dilly — and most kind and attentive he was. 

Eeturning to Arconum, we dined, and joined the 
evening mail-train from Madras to Bombay. When I 
awoke, we were at the old ruined fort of Gooty. In 



108 A WIIS'TER IK IKDIA. 

every field there was a man in a structure elevated on 
poles, watching the crops and protecting them against 
the depredations of wild beasts. "We passed much waste- 
land — the country was quite flat, with low and generally 
isolated hills at a distance, and, nearer to the line, singu- 
lar rocky mounds, rising to a considerable height at the 
town of Adoni — then we crossed the now nearly dry 
channel of the river Toongabudra, which joins the 
Beema some distance below, and the two together form 
the Kistna. The cactus makes an excellent railway- 
fence in Southern India. 

At Kaichoor the Madras Railway ends and the Great 
Indian Peninsular begins. We arrived there at 11.30 ; 
and, having had nothing since the previous evening but 
a cup of weak tea, were naturally hungry. "What was 
our astonishment when told there was no breakfast ready 
at a place where we were to stop forty minutes, except a 
piece of cold beef covered with wire and flies ! Some 
one used an unparhamentary expression, and, hey, 
presto ! appeared one of the best breakfasts we had had 
set before us in India — choice tea, excellent curry, ten- 
der mutton chops, and fresh eggs. Where it came from 
must remain a mystery forever. 



CHAPTER XIL 

AT POONA. 

We are now in the Eizam's territory, and a branch 
line goes off at Wadi to his capital of Hyderabad. Ris- 
ing to a higher level, the line passes over a poorly-cnlti- 
vated and sparsely -peopled district, with extensive tracts 
of waste-land. It was very hot all day : even the Vene- 
tians failed to keep out the sun's rays, and we felt the 
lightest of clothing too heavy, and motion impossible. 
Dining at Sholapore, we reached Poona at 4.40 a.m., 
and found carriages and servants waiting to take us to 
join the other members of our party in the Napier Hotel. 

"We heard an admirable sermon from the Rev. Mr. 
Small, of the Free Church of Scotland, on Sunday even- 
ing, and on Monday forenoon paid two visits of great 
interest to me. 

There are six Government schools for females in 
Poona, over which Mrs. Mitchell and her very energetic 
assistant. Miss Rosa Morris, preside. They commenced 
only ten years ago, but already have sent forth a great 
number of teachers ; and now none are admitted into the 
higher classes, or those for schoolmistresses only, who 
have not passed the third standard in the vernacular. 
On entering that college they get a salary varying from 



110 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

two to eight rupees per month, dependent on length of 
attendance and progress. 

We spent a long time in the principal of these 
schools, and were greatly gratified by all we saw and 
heard. Little girls are brought in, on whom the young 
teachers first try their hand ; then the latter are sent out 
to give instruction in other institutions, still under the 
eye of their European superiors ; and lastly they are 
available for situations anywhere. I was delighted with 
Miss Morris's '^ Marathi Songs for Children," one of 
them set to music to the old familiar tune of ^* Duncan 
Gray." It was remarkable to see the transformation 
worked by this able and enthusiastic young lady on the 
silent, motionless Hindoo youngsters : they were all life 
and joy when following her lead. Many of the women 
— some of them mere children — are widows, and the 
popular feeling is much opposed to their being taught 
and teaching. 

Our second visit was to the old palace of the Peishwas' 
commander-in-chief — now turned to a much better pur- 
pose — a school in which 300 young men and boys are 
taught under the superintendence of Mr. Beaumont, of 
hhe Free Church of Scotland. Two hundred learn Eng- 
lish, and the good attendance and anxiety to learn were 
very evident. From the roof of the building 1 had an 
excellent view of Poona, with its neat and clean native 
town of 80,000 inhabitants, the cantonment, pubhc 
buildings, and officers' bungalows, situated in a basin 
surrounded by hills. 



AT POONA. Ill 

This morning the Eoyal Commission on Education, 
the names of its members, and the instructions to them 
of the Governor- General in Council, appear in the 
newspapers, and to my mind the expressed views and 
order of the Government appear eminently satisfac- 
tory. The extension of primary education to the mass- 
es is set forth as the main desideratum of the present 
day. Hitherto we have been doing rather too much 
to instruct, at the expense of the state, classes well able 
to pay for their own education, and not over-loyal, or 
likely in certain contingencies and in certain respects not 
to make a very good use of it.'^ I anticipate much good 
from this inquiry and new departure. Government has 
likewise, I see with pleasure, taken up seriously the rec- 
ommendations of the Famine Commission^ of which my 
friend Mr. James Caird, C.B., was a leading member, 
which some feared might be allowed to fall into neglect. 
A new department is to be formed, which will put the 
rulers of India in possession of all the necessary facts re- 
garding the food supplies, and likewise give an impetus 
to agricultural improvement, and so render famines less 
likely and disastrous. I hope that those charged with 
this important duty will give a favorable consideration 
to Mr. W. Wedderburn's scheme for the formation of 

* " Too much money is spent by the Government in giving to 
the richer classes a superior education for which they ought to 
pay themselves, while too little is spent on elementary instruction 
for the masses of the poor."—" The Finances and Public Works 
of India," by Sir J. Strachey and Major-General R. Strachey. 
London : Kegan Paul, French & Co. 



112 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

agricultural banks, which seems already to have com- 
mended itself to the Government of Bombay. He has 
published a most interesting and readable pamphlet on 
the subject, in which he narrates what has been done in 
Germany ; points out that ' ' the fundamental error of 
what has hitherto been done in India consists in the at- 
tempt to accomplish through state agency what can only 
be successfully carried out by private enterprise ;" and 
in a most business-like manner propounds, explains, and 
defends his own plan, which certainly commends itself 
to my judgment as one which, if adopted and exten- 
sively acted upon, cannot fail to be an enormous boon to 
India. 

We are all constantly being reminded in various 
ways of the -poverty of the people, and the primary 
necessity of improving their lot. I am no defender of 
the Government interest in opium ; and no one I imagine 
would, if such a mode of raising revenue were proposed 
as a new measure, care to defend it ; but it is very ques- 
tionable if China would be morally benefited by a 
change of system which might greatly extend the culti- 
vation of the poppy ; and I say without hesitation that 
the poor ryots of India have a prior claim on us for a 
reduction, and let it be hoped eventually the abolition, 
of the salt tax, which presses on the very poorest of the 
population, and has been, 1 believe fairly, estimated as 
equal to a fortnight's labor per annum of every head of 
a family who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow. 

We drove on Monday evening to the enormous pile of 



AT POON^A. 113 

buildings erected at most unjustifiable cost as a Govern- 
ment residence at Gunesh Khind, then tlirougb the 
Kirkee cantonment of artillery and sappers and miners, 
across the bridge where the river has been dammed up 
so as to form a pretty lake, and home by the public gar- 
dens. The Southern Cross shines gloriously here in 
early morning at present. When we arrived from the 
south at 4.30 a.m., its stars were like lamps to our path. 

There is an extensive view of Poona and its surround- 
ings from the Temple of Parbuttee, or Goddess of Love, 
situated on a lofty rock close to the town ; and the pret- 
tiest place within a short drive is Sungum, where the 
rivers Moota and Moola meet close to the Bombay rail- 
road line. 

Many questions are likely to be asked of those who 
have travelled in India regarding the probable stability 
of British power. It must be kept in mind that there is 
no such thing as patriotism or national feeling among the 
heterogeneous races which form the population of Hin- 
dostan, and that the millions of ryots and laborers neither 
love nor hate us, but simply view our reign with in- 
difference, in fact think and care little about us. There 
are Mohammedan fanatics, who do cherish deep-seated 
dislike to us, both on rehgious and political grounds ; 
and certain Brahmins may sympathize more or less with 
them ; and the events of the Mutiny showed how badly- 
informed the official class was at the time as to the state 
of public feeling, and how foolish men in authority 
were in refusing to listen to the representations and 



114 A WINTER IK IZSTDIA. 

warnings of the missionaries. But there are two consid- 
erations which render a fresh outbreak unlikely. In the 
first place, thousands of the upper classes among the 
natives are fast making money under our regime of law 
and order ; and, secondly, such military arrangements 
have been made since 1857 as render a successful insur- 
rection almost impossible. All the forts are in European 
hands, and all the artillery, with the exception of a few 
small batteries in the north-west frontier, is in the same 
position. Every one, however, admits that there is a 
danger from the armies kept up by native princes, which 
are absolutely useless and very expensive, and may give 
trouble. Careful but vigorous steps should be taken to 
reduce their number, which stands at present on paper at 
381,000 men, most of whom, however, are a mere rabble, 
although Scindia has adopted the German system, and 
could at any time call out a large, well-disciplined force. 
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to induce rajahs 
to dismiss men who had once '^ eaten their bread ;" but 
might not the paramount power insist on enlistment 
being reduced and eventually stopped ? 

I fain hope and believe that a very marked improve- 
ment has taken place in the treatment of the natives by 
Europeans. There are no doubt many stories afloat, 
some of them perhaps more or less true, and some much 
exaggerated, of the unjust decisions of judges, the vio- 
lent behavior of officers, and the supercilious conduct of 
men in authority ; but I find testimony wonderfully 
unanimous in favor of the present rather than the past ; 



AT POOl^A. 115 

and those on whose judgment most reliance can be placed 
all say, Deliver us from the old school — the " Qui hais" 
of the last generation — and send us out gentlemen from 
England fresh to their duties, who will not be so tyran- 
nical and capricious as those who in so many instances 
have reflected no credit on the British name. No one 
can be long in India and visit its courts of law without 
observing how closely, almost ridiculously, the various 
customs, disputes, and lawsuits about land in that coun- 
try resemble those in Ireland. The great difficulty with 
the natives seems to be their disregard of truth, and their 
habit of exaggeration ; all their statements must be put 
in writing or they would be denied on the first con- 
venient opportunity. 

Perhaps the most important question of the hour- is 
how to place the tenure of land on a more satisfactory 
footing. Nor can we afford to overlook the natural de- 
sire expressed by the educated classes for an extension 
of the representative principle. The great council of 
Calcutta has heen almost in abeyance, and is now not 
much of a reahty. It may be possible, by and by, to 
strengthen it by delegates from successfully-managed 
municipalities, or in some other manner to meet an ever- 
increasing demand. As a fair example of the feelings 
and opinions of the natives, I cannot do better than in^ 
sert here a copy of an address presented to me at a meet- 
ing of the Sarvajanik Sabha, attended by 800 or 1000 
people in Poona, on the evening before I left : 



116 A WINTER 1-^ INDIA. 

" Hon. Sir : It gives us great satisfaction to have the privilege 
of welcoming you on behalf of the native public of this place. 
You have always been honorably distinguished by your adhesion 
to liberal principles, and you have been one of that small band of 
Englishmen who have always evinced an interest in Indian 
matters. Since the days of the Mutiny and the assumption of 
direct sovereignty over India by Her Majesty the Queen-Empress, 
the affairs of India have assumed their natural place in the 
thoughts of Englishmen, and, however much the leaders of both 
parties in Parliament profess to regard Indian questions as out of 
the pale of party politics, during the last four or five years es- 
pecially Indian grievances and wrongs have furnished a consider- 
able number of topics on which the Parliament and the public of 
England have felt themselves called upon to interest themselves 
as intimately as if they were purely English questions. Under 
these circumstances it becomes the duty of those who have India's 
welfare at heart to supply from time to time, as occasion arises, 
correct information of the views and wants of the people of this 
country, and to seek to influence the English public through its 
recognized leaders in the English Parliament and the English 
Press. In this connection it is felt by us all to be a most fortu- 
nate circumstance that honorable Members of Parliament avail 
themselves of the small leisure at their disposal to visit this dis- 
tant country, and make themselves practically acquainted with its 
material and moral condition. Official sources of information are 
always at your disposal, and we, under existing conditions, can 
hope but little to supplement it with accurate statistics and other 
detailed information. At the same time you cannot but be fully 
aware that official authorities, however honest and painstaking, 
are seldom able to grasp all sides of the questions that come 
before them, and certain it is that they do not possess the same 
facilities to know where the official machine presses hard upon 
the people as intelligent representatives of the people themselves 
may be expected to do. The absence of any representative insti- 
tutions, even of a consultative character, to control and modify 
the action of executive officers, enhances the difficulty caused by 
the differences of race, religion, and manners between the rulers 
and the ruled. It is, however, a hopeful circumstance that not- 
withstanding these difficulties India has made a fair progress in 



AT POONTA. 117 

good government during the twentj^-five years that have passed 
since the Mutiny troubles. The force of Indian public opinion is, 
however, so small that it needs to be strengthened by the active 
sympathy and co-operation of India's friends in Parliament. It is 
with this view that we have troubled you with this call upon your 
valuable time, and we cannot but express our heartfelt thanks for 
your accepting our invitation with such cordial readiness. Allow 
us, in the short time that is at your disposal, to briefly note for 
your attention a few points on which we feel that in the interests 
of England and India the administrative machinery set up in this 
country fails to give satisfaction to the people, and requires to be 
carefully looked after, with a view to adapt it to the wants of the 
present day. We freely acknowledge all the benefits which 
British rule has secured to this country in maintaining undisturbed 
tranquillity and guaranteeing its safety against foreign invasions, 
in encouraging education, in developing a system of useful public 
"works, and the other benefits incident to a high state of civiliza- 
tion. While in all these respects there has been great progress 
during the last twenty-five years, the form of the administration 
and its direct action upon the people have remained for the most 
part unchanged. It is true that Legislative Councils for the more 
advanced provinces were constituted in 1861 ; but their constitu- 
tion is so one-sided, and their power so limited, that in the hands 
of strong rulers they have almost ceased to possess any influence 
for good, and are too often made the instruments of registering 
official wishes without being able to represent outside opinion 
effectively. The attention of Indian reformers has of late been 
directed to this question, and various schemes have been sug- 
gested with a view to improve the constitution of these councils. 
The absence of any local organizations which could be trusted 
with the power of electing representatives has been always felt to 
be a very serious want ; but the extension of the decentralization 
policy by the present government of India will, we trust, supply 
this want by the creation of self-governing municipalities and 
district local boards. Mr. William Digby has recently published 
a pamphlet, in which he insists, with good reason, upon the 
urgent necessity of this reform, as lying at the root of all other 
reforms in Indian administration. We are fully aware that consti- 
tutional habits and traditions take a long time to grow and cannot 



118 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

be created to order. At the same time we assure you that the 
establishment of some correlation between the views of the Indian 
public and the British rulers is a necessity which Parliament will 
have to direct its attention to if the present process is not to be 
retarded. The people of India will be satisfied at present with 
the establishment of a consultative assembly, consisting of officials 
and non-officials, the latter representing the large towns and dis- 
tricts, with a right to be consulted in matters of new legislation 
and taxation, and of interpellating executive officers with a view 
to elicit information upon administrative details. 

" 3. Next in importance to the reform noted above is the liber- 
alizing of local administrations in the large towns and more ad- 
vanced districts. The Government of India has already in the 
series of resolutions expressed itself strongly in favor of extending 
local self-government. The official authorities, however, viewing 
the matter from their own standpoint, will, it is feared, not co- 
operate with the same singleness of purpose which earnest con- 
viction alone secures. English opinion has alone the power to 
remove these obstacles, and we trust that those who have the ear 
of the English public in and out of Parliament will strengthen 
the hands of the Government of India to secure the success of 
their contemplated reforms. 

"3. It is not without reason that we have drawn your attention 
to the necessity which exists of English public opinion coming to 
our assistance. In the settlement of the much-disputed land 
question the authorities in India, as well as the Secretary of State, 
as far back as 1862, definitively pronounced themselves in favor 
of extending the permanent settlement in all the more settled dis- 
tricts of the country. Owing to local opposition, however, that 
despatch, though not formally overruled, has remained a dead 
letter to this day. The example of bad native rulers, who en- 
hanced the assessments arbitrarily at times, has been turned into 
an argument to support the policy of periodical resettlements, 
and a great deal too much is made of the concession of this modi- 
fied system of conferring interest in land upon the peasantry. The 
fact, however, is that the best native rulers respected and recog- 
nized indefeasible property in land, subject to a fixed charge, 
and, what in England is called freehold, was the common tenure 
of this country, with the name of mirasi, as typical of the highest 



AT POOKA. 119 

property that a man can possess. Whatever may be the theory, 
the government assessment absorbs not a portion of the rent 
proper, but the whole of the rent and a portion of the profits of 
cultivation. As a consequence of this state of things the country 
is reduced to a dead level of poverty. Two commissions appointed 
by Government (the Deccan Riots Commission of 1875, and the 
Famine Commission of 1878-79) have set forth the evils of the 
present system, and the independent members in those two com- 
missions have to a great extent indorsed the views we have long 
entertained on the subject. A modified permanent settlement, 
which will secure its due share to Government in the land revenue, 
is as important to the future growth of this country as the settle- 
ment of the Irish land question is in Ireland. 

" 4. Another question in which the people of India have always 
evinced the greatest interest, and have repeatedly memorialized 
Parliament for the redress of their grievances, is the question of 
the admission of the natives on equal terms with Englishmen in 
the ranks of the covenanted services. The Covenanted Civil 
Service was thrown open to public competition in 1853, but it was 
not till 1864 that the first native candidate passed the tests. Soon 
after the limit of age was reduced from 23 to 21, but it did not 
materially interfere with the chances of native candidates finding 
admission into the service. And in ten years, from 1867 to 1877, 
about twelve more candidates passed the test. In 1878 the limit 
of age was still further lowered to 19, from which time no Indian 
candidate has found it possible to appear at the examination. 
This limit of 19 was, we understand, disapproved by a large 
majority of the authorities consulted, and is found very incon- 
venient even in the case of English candidates. Indian opinion, 
while iusisting upon the test of examinations and the advantage 
of residence in England, only asked that the examinations should 
be held in India and in England subject to the same tests. This 
prayer was refused, and in its place the late Viceroy has sought to 
satisfy native claims by the creation of a subordinate native ser- 
vice, distinctly marked as separate from the governing body by 
differences in pay, prospects, and promotion, and not chosen by 
competition, but by nomination from considerations of family 
connections. This we regard to be a distinctly retrograde step, 
and native public opinion will not be satisfied till a return is made 



120 A WINTER IK IKDIA. 

to the old liberal rules. Next to the Covenanted Civil Service, 
the largest opening to native ambition is furnished by the rules 
of the medical service. We trust there is no foundation for the 
report that English authorities contemplate the abolition of these 
examinations, and substituting in their stead a system of direct 
nomination from the medical schools in England. The admission 
of natives into the ranks of the military service has long been felt 
to be a desideratum, especially in the case of the scions of the 
noble families for whom this career would furnish a healthy oc- 
cupation. The late Army Commission has recommended the par- 
tial adoption of this reform in the case of Bengal and Punjab, 
and we trust that India's friends in Parliament will press this 
subject upon the attention of the authorities till this invidious 
distinction between class and class is removed. 

" 5. The threatened abolition of the cotton duties, and the 
necessity which will soon be forced upon the Indian authorities 
of surrendering some portion of their opium revenue in deference 
to the anti-opium agitation, renders the position of Indian finance 
so unstable, that notwithstanding the anticipated surplus of this 
year it will be impossible to make both the ends meet without 
effecting retrenchments in all departments. The highest military 
authorities who were represented in the Army Commission sug- 
gested a reduction of one and a half million sterling in the army 
expenditure. An equal sum might be saved by the larger substi- 
tution of native for European agency in the police, public works, 
medical, educational, post-office and account branches, in which 
there are at present no vested interests to conserve. In this con- 
nection the reduction of the home charges by a more equitable 
distribution of the Indian army expenditure in England, and the 
purchase of the stores in the local markets, will also commend 
themselves to you as requiring immediate attention. If in addi- 
tion to these reductions England guarantees the interest of Indian 
public debt, as it is bound to do in its own interest, the total re- 
ductions will amount to about five millions sterling, which will 
be a great relief, and might enable India to bear with equanimity 
the partial loss of the opium revenue, and the total loss of the 
cotton duties. We need hardly urge upon your attention that 
there is little or no room for additional taxation in this country, 
where the people are so poor that the chief necessary of life has 



AT POOKA. 121 

to be taxed a thousandfold, to the great inconvenience of all 
classes, and that an income-tax on the English scale is expected 
to yield only one million sterling. The existing license tax has 
been condemned for its invidious incidents, and also for the pov- 
erty of its return, while the other heads of revenue are already 
fixed at their highest pitch. The reduction of expenditure is 
thus not a question of choice, but of necessity for the success of 
Indian finance. 

"6. In the same connection we are glad to note that the ques- 
tion of the disestablishment of the Anglo-Indian Church has 
already engaged your attention. The services of army chaplains 
must be secured under any circumstances, but the same necessity 
cannot be pleaded for the diversion of public funds for the sup- 
port of the four bishoprics and a large number of chaplains who 
minister to the spiritual wants of the wealthy among the European 
civil population. Having due regard to the promises contained 
in the great Royal Proclamation of 1858, the natives of this 
country must demand that this abuse of state funds shall be put 
a stop to forthwith, and we trust that when the time comes, you 
will support our prayer for the abolition of this anomaly before 
Parliament. 

*' 7. In submitting the foregoing observations on this occasion 
we are fully conscious that the questions indicated therein have 
complex bearings, and the point of view from which we look at 
them nmst be modified by other considerations which commend 
themselves to the Indian authorities. It seems, therefore, to us 
to be very necessary that all the bearings of the questions should 
be sifted by an independent commission of inquiry. In the last 
session of Parliament Mr. Fowler and Sir David Wedderbura 
made a motion to this effect, and we have good reasons to think 
that but for the Irish distractions the Prime Minister and the 
Secretary of State for India would have accepted a limited 
inquiry. We trust that when the arrears of home business are 
cleared, you and the other friends of India will reopen this ques- 
tion. Periodical inquiries into the working of the Indian Govern- 
ment have produced good results in the past, and the time ap- 
pears to us to have come when such an inquiry might be expected 
to lead to similar results in the future. 

" 8. We hope to be excused for the length over which these 



122 A WIKTER IK INDIA. 

observations have extended. The Liberal party at present in 
power, and of which you are so distinguished a member, pledged 
their word at the late elections to accomplish certain reforms in 
accordance with the expressed wishes of the people of this 
country. They have given us peace on the frontiers ; they have 
set a noble precedent in defraying a portion, though a small one, 
of the cost of the Afghan war from the English revenues ; they 
have sent his Excellency the Marquis of Ripon to rule over us, 
and deputed Major Baring to manage our finances. These Indian 
authorities have earned a title to the confidence of the country by 
stimulating private enterprise, encouraging the consumption of 
articles of indigenous manufactures, setting free the Indian ver- 
nacular press, and laying down a scheme for the extension of 
local self-government. These generous concessions have laid the 
people under great obligations to the leaders of the Liberal party, 
and we request that you will convey this expression of our grati- 
tude to the Right Hon. Mr. Gladstone, the Right Hon. the Mar- 
quis of Hartington, and the Right Hon. Mr. Bright, and Mr. 
Fawcett, for their noble endeavors to promote the best interests 
of this country." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EETUKN TO BOMBAY. 

I HAD occasion, on the 15tli, to send a telegram to 
Scotland, and received an answer, md Bombay, in seven 
hours ! The Post- Office and telegraphic services in 
India are most admirably conducted. In 1880-81 no 
fewer than 159,000,000 letters, newspapers, and par- 
cels passed through the Post-Office, and nearly 15,000,- 
000 post-cards w^ere used. In the course of the same 
year nearly £8,000,000 ($38,720,000) worth of insured 
property was sent through the Post-Office, of which only 
£1040 ($5, 033. 60) was lost. 

The most conspicuous building in Poona is the syna- 
gogue, its lofty red tower being seen from every point of 
view. The principal street in the native town is wider 
and has much handsomer and cleaner houses than is 
the case in most Indian towns : it resembles one in 
an American Western city. Sugar-cane is extensively 
grown in the vicinity, there being an ample supply of 
water to irrigate the fields, and it pays better than other 
crops. 

At 12.30 on 16th February we left by train for Bom- 
bay. At this time of year the country on the route is 
more dreary and burnt-up than any we had seen in 



124 A WINTER i:^ Il^TDIA. 

India. Tlie bare conical hills have a Scotch-like appear- 
ance. 

In a little over two hours we arrived at the beginning 
of the descent of the famous Bhore Ghaut, one of the 
most remarkable engineering feats in the world, and 
were detained a long time by a landslip, which had 
blocked the line shortly before, near Kundala. In a 
very few miles the railway descends more than 1800 
feet. At one point there is a reversing station, the 
engine changing its position. There are many tunnels, 
and the views of the plain far down below — of over- 
hanging peaks, deep gorges and precipices — are very 
fine. The fact of there being more deciduous trees than 
usual on these slopes detracts from the beauty of the 
scenery in the winter. At CalHanee Junction, where the 
Calcutta line branches off, there are some very fantas- 
tically-shaped hills, and here are the prettiest station 
garden and flowers which we had seen in India. 

Bombay strikes one, on returning to it, as, after all, in 
point of public buildings and streets, much the hand- 
somest town in the country. About Elphinstone Circle 
and the Esplanade it will in these respects bear compari- 
son with some European capitals ; and the drive round 
Cumballa and Malabar hills, among the delightful bun- 
galows, which overlook the Indian Ocean on the north, 
and get the benefit of its refreshing breezes, is one of the 
most beautiful of its kind anywhere to be seen. 

On Sunday I went out to Parek, to lunch with Sir 
James Eergusson, the able Governor of the Presidency, 



KETURIf TO BOMBAY. 125 

who, on account of severe domestic affliction, had not 
been able to ask ns to stay with him, as proposed ; and 
in the evening we attended divine service at the Free 
Church of Scotland. 

At Agra we had met, in the hotel. Dr. Partridge, 
Brigade- Surgeon, who has a beautiful villa — Bella Yista 
-^on Cumballa Hill, and who is actively engaged in 
missionary work during his spare hours. Like a good 
Samaritan and Christian as well, he had compassion on 
us in the dirty, dilapidated, mosquito-infected Adelphi 
Hotel, and insisted on our removing to his house on 
Monday, where we spent, fanned by the delightful 
northern breeze, our last days in India. 

He took us in the afternoon to visit a Parsee house, in 
which reside seven sons and three daughters, all married, 
having, one of the ladies said, ''dozens upon dozens" 
of children, and rejoicing in wonderful barrel-organs. 
Then there were dinner and luncheon parties, a ball given 
by the bachelors of Bombay in a fine native house at 
Malabar Point, horse-races at Byculla, and a variety of 
other engagements and amusements for old and young. 
I counted eighteen cotton-factories from the balcony of 
the spacious Byculla Club. 

The day before leaving I paid a visit to the Free 
Church Mission Establishment, where Dr. Wilson so 
long labored, and where 600 scholars are now being 
taught ; lunched with the Governor in the Secretariat, 
went off to see the Jumna transport, and then drove 
round Malabar and Cumballa Hills. Some parts of the 



126 A WINTER IN INDIA, 

former, with its villas and flowers, remind me of Musta- 
pha at Algiers. The latter has the purer, fresher air, 
and will surely become the favorite suburb of Bombay. 
Warden Road, leading along the sea to Breach Candy, is 
the paradise of nurserymen and maids in the evening. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

DEPARTURE FROM INDIA. 

How cliarming was our last night in India ! The 
naoon shone through the palm-trees upon the spacious 
balcony of Bella Vista, and we felt a sort of melancholy 
steal over us as we thought of the kind friends from 
whom we were to part — a dear daughter whom we might 
not see again for years, and a country to which we were 
about to say good-by forever. The sea-breeze sighed 
among the branches, and the waves of the Indian Ocean, 
breaking gently on the rocks, were our lullaby. 

As the clock struck five on Thursday afternoon, 23d 
February, the Yenetia^s anchor was raised, and before 
we sat down to dinner I had my last look of India. The 
north-east monsoon was blowing, and for thirty-six hours 
the ship rolled a good deal, but by Saturday morning 
the wind died away, and at noon that day we had run 
809 miles — quite a feat for a P. and O. 

I have read '' Twenty-one Days in India ; or, the 
Tour of Sir Ali Baba, K.C.B.," by the late lamented 
Mr. Mackay. It is very clever, and many truths are told 
in its witty, satirical sketches. Here is what he says of 
ritualistic clergymen : "In a heathen country their 
paltry fetichism and incomprehensible technicalities are 



128 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

peculiarly offensive and injurious to the interests of civil- 
ization and Christianity." About the Rajahs he re- 
marks : " They have built their houses of cards on the 
thin crust of British Eule that now covers the crater, 
and they are ever ready to pour a pannikin of water into 
a crack to quench the explosive forces rumbling below." 
Of the poor ryot he writes : '' Famine is the horizon of 
the Indian villager ; insufficient food is the foreground." 
Then follows a beautiful description of the fertile soil 
and glorious climate, and he concludes: "Amid this 
easeful and luscious splendor the villager labors and 
starves." 

I have spent some time in looking over back numbers 
of The Quarterly Journal of the Poona Babha. The 
following extracts faithfully represent the sentiments of 
every educated native whom I met regarding the past 
and present administrations : 

" The four years of Lord Lytton's administration of India have 
proved disastrous beyond all precedent to the true interests of the 
millions committed to his fostering carjB. The besetting sin of 
his administration has been that it was eminently untruthful, re- 
pressive, and reactionary at home, unjustly aggressive abroad, and 
disastrous to the safety of our finance and material prosperity. 

" We cannot but congratulate both India and England on the 
overthrow of an administration which has been without a parallel 
in the annals of British India for its disastrous failure in war, in 
finance, in legislation, and administration. 

" We can only hope that with the retirement of Sir E. Temple, 
and the enforced resignation of Lord Lytton and Sir John 
Strachey, the retrograde and blustering policy which overshad- 
owed all the departments of administration, and repressed the 
growth of our national aspirations, may be said to have had ita 



DEPARTURE FROM INDIA. 129 

fitting close, and that a more gen^iinely liberal, just, and sym- 
pathetic rule will dawn upon the country, and undo the disas- 
trous work of a false and short-lived imperialism. 

" Under these circumstances, we are gratefully thankful that 
our rulers feel disposed to review their Indian policy, and to re- 
organize their system of Indian government. The old policy of 
blustering, and of assuming imperial airs, and of devising plans to 
humiliate and weaken the natives of India, and of excluding them 
from all consideration as if they were ' dumb driven cattle,' has 
now been wisely abandoned. The time has come when the shack- 
les of India should be relaxed, and when the natives should be 
taken into confidence, when their proposals for conserving and 
improving their commercial and political condition should be 
carefully considered, when their aristocracy, which necessarily 
and naturally leads them, should be respected, and when the 
police arrangements and the municipal and local government of 
India should be placed on a better footing. India has now 
learned to look about herself, to examine, to improve, and to 
aspire. With the accession of the Liberals into power, and the 
deputation of Lord Ripon and Major Baring to control the desti- 
nies of this country, the dawn of a better order of things has 
filled the land with hopefulness, and dispersed the gloom of war 
and humiliation. ' ' 

Those interested in the extension of the principle of 
representation shoiald read the two extracts subjoined ; 

" Your petitioners submit that the time has come when the 
views of the independent native and European public should find 
a recognized place ; and the only way in which this end can be 
secured is to admit a few representative members elected by the 
leading cities and populous centres throughout the country. The 
representative principle has now found place in the municipali- 
ties of the three Presidency towns, and has worked satisfactorily. 
This principle might be safely extended to the other large centres 
of population, and the municipalities so elected might be safely 
trusted to send representative men to the several legislatures. 
These members might not find a place in the executive govern- 
ment for the present, but if the right of interpellating the execu- 



130 A Wli^TER Iiq^ I]S^DIA. 

tive officers upon all questions of public importance were allowed 
to them, the check against arbitrary rule will be effective, and the 
criticism based upon such information in the press and in public 
petitions will cease to be non-effective as at present — thus estab- 
lishing greater harmony than has obtained hitherto by allowing 
Government to justify its measures to the people. The present 
advanced state of public intelligence in this country justifies the 
extension of this right, as, without the adequate check it will 
provide, all further progress will be greatly retarded. 

" The real struggle will have to be fought out in India, and it 
is in the enlargement of the Indian Legislative Councils that all 
our hope for a better future is centred. Mr. Digby proposes to 
have a council consisting of the e^^-officio executive counsel- 
lors, supplemented by the addition of the ex-officio collectors, and 
a due proportion of nominated and elected European and native 
members. We do not approve of the suggestion regarding the ex- 
officio collectors. The District Local Fund Committees, enlarged 
and liberalized under the new decentralization schemes, will be 
in a position to send their representatives to the council. This 
will supply the Conservative element, and the Liberal element 
will be effectively supplied by the representatives of the large 
city municipalities. These two elements, with a due admixture 
of the ex-officio and nominated members, will be for a long time 
to come a sufficient representation of all interests." 

I liad the happiness to be in at the death of the Yer- 
nacular Press Act. The following quotations express 
accurately the views not only of natives but of many 
Englishmen who spoke to me on the subject : 

" But in what light can their conduct be viewed if they wilfully 
increase the difficulty of knowing what the people think and 
feel about their intentions and doings a thousand-fold ; if in- 
stead of trying to make themselves acquainted with what passes 
in the innermost recesses of the minds of the subjects, they 
designedly throw a veil over them, as if a knowledge of the dis- 
ease is not the first condition of its cure, and as if the task of the 
physician will be smoothed by ignoring its symptoms. Can good 



DEPARTURE FROM IKDIA. 131 

government be insured to the people without the rulers being ac- 
quainted with their modes of thinking and feeling, with what 
they consider as their grievances, with the impressions they 
receive from the acts of Government officials, with their habits 
and opinions and sentiments and prejudices ? Can this desirable 
information be had independently of the native press ? Certainly 
not, if we are to believe Lord William Bentinck, one of the most 
successful and really philanthropic rulers of India, who is 
reported to have said ' that he had derived more information from 
the Indian press than from all the councils, all the boards, and all 
the secretaries by whom he was surrounded.' Can a fettered 
press venture to supply freely to Government any information re- 
garding its officials and the people which it needs for successfully 
conducting the administration of the country ? Who can, with 
the sword of Damocles hanging over his head, freely denounce 
the conduct and doings of government officials, when the latter 
are so prone to resent any sort of criticism of their acts as an in- 
sult offered to the majesty of Great Britain, and to confound it 
with an attempt at sapping the foundation of the British Empire 
in India ? 

"The act for the better control of oriental publications was 
passed by the late Government three years ago, under an appre- 
hension of political necessitj'^ which subsequent events have not, 
by the admission of all parties, justified. The official papers 
since published have shown that there was not that consensus of 
opinions even in the most responsible advisers of Government 
which alone could have warranted the wide departure from the 
acknowledged policy of the Government in this connection, sanc- 
tioned as it was by nearly fifty years' experience of the greafc 
benefits which had resulted from the unrestricted liberty of the 
press in this country. The only precedent for such action was 
that afforded by a measure adopted by Lord Canning under the 
excitement of the troubles caused by the Mutiny of 1857 ; but 
Lord Canning's measure was free from any invidious distinction 
between vernacular and English publications, and it was only 
temporary in its application. The present measure was apparently 
passed in great hurry, in view of apprehended troubles in Russia. 
That justiecation has long since ceased, and the measure had 
been practically inoperative, except in a few isolated cases where 



132 A Wli^TER Iiq" IKDIA. 

the actional of local governments has had to be controlled and set 
aside by the interference of His Excellency the Viceroy in Coun- 
cil. This Sabha has from the first protested against the enact- 
ment of such a measure and its retention on the statute-book, on 
the grounds that it cast an undeserved suspicion upon the loyalty 
of the vernacular newspapers, that it prevented the free discus- 
sion of official measures which, under the circumstances of an 
alien rule like that which obtains in British India, is so necessary 
in the interests both of the governed and the governing classes, 
that it checked from the sense of ignoble fear the growth of a 
healthy public opinion, and that it invested petty local authorities 
with a power of vexatious interference which cannot fail to de- 
moralize them." 

Tlie excuse for passing this measure was that many of 
these newspapers evinced a bad spirit, and attacked the 
Government in improper words. If this test were ap- 
plied to not a few of the English periodicals published in 
India it would go hard with them. 

Until I visited the country I had no idea that there 
existed in our Empire journals so replete with vulgar 
vituperation as the Jingo newspapers of liindostan. I 
read in one of them a leader on Lord Hartington, put- 
ting into his mouth words which he never used, and im- 
puting to him opinions which I know he does not hold, 
and then showering upon him names worthy onl}' of 
Billingsgate. Several men of influence expressed them- 
selves to me thoroughly ashamed of a portion of their 
press, and remarked that if the vernacular papers were 
violent, they had had a very evil example set them by 
the organs of the officials who were the authors of the 
act now happily repealed. 

A writer in one of the numbers of the Poona Sabha 



DEPARTURE FROM INDIA. 133 

Jmirnal discusses the policy of retaining the armies of 
the native states, and I give his arguments against dis- 
bandment, although not agreeing with him, and taking 
care to remark that no one advocates forcible measures 
in bringing about a change of system. 

*' 1. The native armies in all the larger states distinctly rest on 
treaty obligations which are binding upon the paramount power, 
which has repeatedly admitted the force of these obligations. 
Such obligations cannot be dissolved without the free and mutual 
consent of poth parties. 

" 2. This appanage is the last privilege left to the royal houses. 
Measures of forcible disbandment cannot but cause dissatisfaction 
among the native states. 

" 3. The armies are not a source of danger to the British Gov- 
ernment. Their strength and numbers are overrated. Badly 
armed, badly officered, badly disciplined, and wholly disunited, 
they have no power for mischief. 

"4. They are, at the same time, very useful auxiliaries, es- 
pecially as against Asiatic powers on the frontiers of our prov- 
inces, in respect of whom the use of the regular British army in- 
volves a needless waste of money and strength. 

" 5. They have rendered important services in the early wars, 
as also in the Mutiny struggle, and have proved valuable auxilia- 
ries in the present Afghan war. 

*' 6. Their loyalty and insignificance renders jealous watchful- 
ness unnecessary, and if more confidence were placed in them, 
they would render a considerable reduction of the British garri- 
son possible. 

" 7. They are beyond all comparison a cheap agency, and good 
material to rely upon as a recruiting-ground for the British 
Indian forces. 

" 8, The whole population being disarmed and demartialized, 
the native armies are the only available militia and reserve force 
to fall back upon. 

*' 9. The native British Indian force is par excellence a merce- 
nary body. The sepoys require to be counterbalanced by these 



134 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

native armies, which are for the most part national and not mer- 
cenary, and which, at all events, will never make common cause 
with the sepoys. 

" 10. In the present state of India, when the whole of Central 
Asia may be expected with Russian help and propulsion any day 
to come down upon us, it is not safe to trust to the single support 
of the regular British Indian forces alone. There should be many 
small centres and foci of dependent authority, scattered over the 
country, with their opportunities of education in military habits, 
and in the higher art of leading and controlling men. 

" 11. In many native states society rests on a feudal or military 
basis. This state of things cannot be disturbed without affecting 
the integrity of the states. The Sirdars and military classes, for 
whom British India offers no field, are usefully provided for in 
these native armies. 

"12. The purposes sought to be accomplished by forcible dis- 
bandment can be equally well achieved by a policy of greater 
trust and confidence. If the armies of native states are badly 
armed and officered and disciplined, these defects may be 
removed by the help of British officers lent to these states to effect 
these reforms, and improve the race of native officers." 



CHAPTER XY. 

ON THE INDIAN OCEAN. 



This voyaging on the Indian Ocean is the perfection 
of travelhng. The sea is so calm, the sun so bright, the 
air so balmy. 

"When I rose on Wednesday morning we were in sight 
of the rock of Aden, and at 10 o'clock we anchored in 
the harbor. There was a delightfully refreshing south- 
ern breeze blowing, and we landed to explore the place, 
driving in light covered carriages to the town on the 
opposite side of the peninsula from the landing-place, to 
the celebrated tanks, which hold millions of gallons of 
water, through two tunnels to the cantonment of the 
English troops and the lines facing Arabia, and to the 
pier, where native craft land provisions and fuel. What 
a grim, arid, sepulchral-looking place it is ! The little 
one-barrel water-carts drawn by camels, the profusely- 
ornamented women, the number of vehicles of all kinds 
on the roads, the total absence of trees — ^indeed, of all 
vegetation except in the small irrigated garden at the 
tanks— and the sharp outlines of the peaks strike you. 
Then the harbor is always full of vessels — steamers 
coming and going continually ; a Russian man-of-war 
entered when we were at anchor, saluted, and her salute 
was returned from a battery on the shore. 



136 A WINTER IN INDIA. 

Brigadier-General Blair, Y.C., was our fellow-passen- 
ger from Bombay, on his way to assume the governor- 
ship of Aden for five years — a brave soldier and most 
agreeable companion, to whom we wish health and hap- 
piness during his residence on that shadeless rock. 

As 4 P.M. struck we weighed anchor, and had rather a 
rough time of it in the night, the scuttles being closed. 
"When I got on deck at 7 a.m. all the square sails were set, 
and we were running past the Island of Gebel Zukur, 
with the wrecks of the Duke of Lancaster and Penguin 
on the port bow. Gradually the wind increased, until at 
noon our good ship began to take in seas, and not until 
we had passed the Twelve Apostles did the turmoil end. 
The Venetia is a very substantial and excellent sea-boat, 
built and engined by Denny of Dumbarton, 2726 tons, 
and commanded by Captain Daniell, who spared no 
effort to make every one happy and comfortable on board. 

Travellers in India and in the steamers to and fro will 
be struck with the frequent discussions which they hear 
about the taxation of that country. There can be no 
doubt that the wealthier classes there do not bear their 
fair share. In fact, the rich natives get off nearly scot- 
free, and millionaires not in trade need pay no more than 
the ryot whose salt is so heavily burdened.* Even the 

* " The exemption of the richer classes from taxation is a polit- 
ical mistake, which, as time goes on, and knowledge and intelli- 
gence increase, must become more and more mischievous." — • 
" India," by Sir J. and General Strachey. 

"It is notorious that the mercantile wealth of the country, 
which is considerable, and daily increasing, pays very little, in 



O^ THE INDIAN OCEAX. 137 ^ 

■I 

landed proprietor is charged a mere trifle in comparison ^ 
with what his forefathers paid under the settlements of 
Akbar ; and the poorer classes will always have a griev- 
ance as long as no income-tax, or similar mode of reach- ; 
ing the large number of wealthy natives, is imposed. : 
"Well-paid civil servants and baboos unite against any j 
such proposal, their newspapers enlarging on the diffi- i 
culty of getting it to work fairly, especially in a country 
like India, where deceit is a science. Yet I have met 
Britisli officials who believe that with a little courage and | 
determination on the part of the authorities it miglit be 
imposed with safety, would remove a great injustice, and 
prove a national benefit. But while rich people pay a 
mere trifle toward the expenses of government, the small \ 
holders and laborers do contribute a considerable portion ; 
of their hard earnings in the shape of a salt tax ; and ^ 
instead of reiterating impressions of my own regarding ^ 
their impoverished condition, let me quote two passages 
from '' British India and its Eulers," just published by j 
Judge Cunningham, of the High Court of Calcutta : j 

•' On the whole it may be said that the great mass of the occu- 
pants of the soil of India must be, from the smallness of their j 
holdings, and the numbers who have to be supported on them, at ] 
the best of times hard pressed for the means of subsistence ; that, | 
in the case of a very large number in Bengal and Upper India, j 
the hardships of their position are enhanced by the presence of a i 
class of more or less exacting landlords, whose eagerness for an '' 

proportion to its means, for the protection and advantages which ] 

it enjoys under British rule."— Mr. Bazett Colvin on "Indian ] 
Taxation." 



138 A WINTER IN" INDIA. 

increased rental is favored by the increased necessity of a grow- 
ing population to find room on the soil ; that habits of improvi- 
dence, and traditional customs of occasional extravagance, not un- 
frequently destroy any chance there might be of a rise to greater 
comfort and security ; that the almost universal practice of de- 
pendence on money-lenders has of late years entailed more serious 
consequences, owing partly to the larger and more assured interest 
in the soil which the landowner enjoys under the British revenue 
settlement, and the better credit he thus obtains ; and partly to 
the speedier, more exact, and more effectual procedure of the 
civil courts ; that some of the conditions of modern life may have 
tended to enhance the difficulties of particular classes ; that 
though there can be no doubt that a large amount of wealth is 
being brought into the country, the increase of population, which 
is likely to be accelerated, will, in years to come, make a large 
demand on the resources so created ; and that, as no considerable 
outlets, other than in agricultural employment, at present exist, 
the pressure on the soil and the penury of the less thrifty and 
capable agriculturists, is likely, in the absence of some new 
form of relief, to become still severer than at present. 

" The grave political and social dangers to which an impover- 
ished, degraded, and rack-rented peasantry gives rise, are assum- 
ing every year a more menancing aspect, and the controversy has 
a tendency, as the pressure of the population on the soil increases, 
to become continually more embittered. Official evidence of the 
weightiest character, and tendered from the most various quar- 
ters, makes it impossible to doubt that the condition of the tenant- 
ry in several parts of India is a peril to society, and a disgrace to 
any civilized administration." 

The following, from the same book, in regard to local 
self-government, is especially interesting at a time when 
that subject is much discussed at home : 

" It was resolved accordingly to intrust to the local govern- 
ments certain important departments of the administration, to 
hand over to them certain specified funds for the purpose of 
meeting the expenditure thus involved and to hold them respon- 



01^ THE INDIAI^r OCEAN". 139 

sible for obtaining, either by economies, rearrangement, or, if 
necessary, local taxation, the means for defraying any outlay 
beyond that covered by the allotment. Cost of jails, registration, 
police, education, medical services, printing, roads, and some 
other items, were thus handed over to the several provincial ad- 
ministrations, a corresponding allotment of revenue being made 
to each. 

*' The gross sum made over for these services was about four 
and a half millions ; this has subsequently been increased by the 
further development of the system to ive and a half millions, and 
the Government is gradually extending it, as opportunities offer, 
in various parts of the Empire. 

" Bengal is now responsible for all civil expenditure, except 
that on opium, and for all loss on its productive public works. 
It has the benefit of all branches of income except land revenue, 
opium, and salt. The success of the scheme in this province has 
been so marked that Bengal has already been able to make a 
material contribution to the Imperial revenue from the large 
margin of profit which accrued to her under tlie arrangement. 
Similar measures will hereafter be carried out elsewhere. 

" All authorities concur in attesting the excellent results of 
these measures as regards economy and activity in the local ad- 
ministrations. The continuous growth in local expenditure has 
been successfully arrested ; every branch of the provincial ad- 
ministrations has received a wholesome stimulus toward care in 
the use of public funds ; the local governments have been relieved 
from a minute financial control which was a constant source of 
irritation, and the Government of India from duties of supervision 
which threatened to overwhelm it. The next few years will, it 
may be hoped, witness the development of a scheme whose sub- 
stantial success is already beyond dispute." 

I add a couple more passages in regard to the all-im- 
portant land question : 

*' In the majority of instances the landlords are now purely 
rent-receivers, doing nothing for the land, and spending none of 
the rental on the improvement of the soil. On the other hand, 
by the invasion of the occupants' rights, and the reduction of 



140 A Wli^^TER liT INDIA. 

large classes to the level of poverty-stricken and rack-rented 
tenants-at-will, the landowners have presented a formidable 
obstacle to the gradual improvements which cultivators with 
secure tcDure and an interest in the soil would have been certain 
to effect. A tenantry in the condition of the Behar ryot, holding 
on a precarious tenure under great proprietors and ' contractors, ' 
whose one interest it is to force up the rents, is the best guaran- 
tee for improvident, wasteful tillage and an exhausted soil. 

" In Bengal, and especially Behar, the landlord system has had 
the longest and completest trial, and the result of unrestricted 
competition for the land has been most clearly illustrated. We 
have now, after a century's experience, to deal with a question 
which, aifScult at the outset, has become, with each year's fresh 
accretion of interests, prejudices, and customs, less easy of solu- 
tion, and which is now so entangled in conflicting claims that its 
adjustment can scarcely be effected without bitter heart-burnings, 
©lass animosities, accusations of bad faith, and all the other inevi- 
table ill-results of a too long postponed reform. Reform, how- 
ever, is admitted, even by those who are most alive to its difficul- 
ties, to be indispensable. Its successful accomplishment would 
be the crowning feat of Indian statesmanship." 

Every one who cares to know about India should read 
Mr. Cunningham's book, although in the judgment of 
men who have spent a life-time in the country, it is 
written in too couleur de rose a style, and although 
nothing is said of the ' ' gulf gradually widening' ' (some 
observers of long experience assure me) between the edu- 
cated natives and their rulers, nothing of the demand for 
an extension of representation, nothing of the complaints 
recorded by me in preceding pages. The information 
given is, however, accurate and well put together, and 
every one must regard it as a valuable contribution to 
our knowledge of India. The annual average foreign 
trade of that country, the author tells us, has increased 



ON THE INDIAN OCEAN. 141 

from 18.6 millions in 1834-39 to 122,000,000 in 18Y9-80, 
and the yearly export of tea now amounts to 34,000,000 
pounds, of the value of £3,000,000 ($14,520,000) sterling. 

According to the most recent official accounts to which 
I have had access — viz., those of 1879 — there are 1363 
tea-gardens in our Indian dominions, having an out-turn 
of 44,771,632 lbs., and a capital invested in them of 
£88,794,298 ($429,764,402.32), and paying an average 
interest of 9.47 per cent. 

We had a calm, cool Friday, another breeze succeeded, 
and by 3 a.m. on Sunday we were abreast the Daedalus 
light ; we passed the remarkable and dangerous coral rocks 
called ^' The Brothers" at noon, had a rough night, and 
found that next morning we were in a different climate 
— every one was shivering, and preferring the sunny side 
of the ship as she ran along that dreadfully desolate coast. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

THE SUEZ CANAL HOME. 

At 10.30 on Monday morning, 6tli March, our anchor 
was dropped in the roadstead of Suez, among numerous 
steamers of various nations, inlcuding H.M.S. Cleopa- 
tra^ and the Khedive^ and Teheran of the P. and O. Line. 
Then followed the usual absurd ceremonies of the quar- 
antine system — a health -despatch received on a forked 
stick, a list of passengers thrown into a tin box, and the 
mails put in tarred sacks, Bombay and Aden being in- 
fected ports, and passengers from the Yenetia not being 
allowed to land in order to proceed to Alexandria by rail. 
I have mentioned previously that the British Govern- 
ment in India no longer manage idol temples, but we 
adopted the endowments which existed before our rule, 
and now pay very large sums to the Hindoo and Moham- 
medan places of worship, in the shape of annual cash 
payments ; and, besides, lands and villages are assigned 
for their support to an extent the value of which it is not 
easy accurately to discover. In the Bombay Presidency 
alone, and excluding five districts not in the returns, 
2725 district religious establishments and 11,039 village 
temples are paid no less than 214,947r. ($107,473.50), 
and the total sum contributed, taking cash payments and 



THE SUEZ CANAL— HOME. 143 

assignments together, is computed to be five lacs of 
rupees ($60,000). In Madras the return of ISTovember, 
1872, shows that land revenue alienations equal to 
2,332,670r. ($1,166,285) in the case of Hindoos, and 
263,194r. ($131,597) in the case of Mohammedans, are 
apphed for religious purposes, while 525,407r. ($262,- 
703.50) were disbursed from treasuries for the same uses. 

Sooner or later the Government must face the ques- 
tion how this system can be put an end to, and these 
payments be made to cease, leaving the temples and 
mosques ultimately, as a writer in one of the journals 
puts it, " to depend entirely on the votive offerings of 
the people." Of course this is a difficult and delicate 
question, not to be settled off-hand, in a day or a year, 
but its discussion and eventual decision cannot be avoid- 
ed, and the ostrich-like policy of refusing to look at it at 
all, will in the long run be found to be inadmissible. In 
order, however, to deal with it without fear, we our- 
selves must be without reproach, and my inquiries in 
India strongly confirm my previous impression that our 
ecclesiastical system and establishment of chaplains there 
cannot be defended. 

As it may be necessary for me elsewhere to treat this 
subject at some length, and in detail, I only observe here 
that a large number of our so-called chaplains do not 
preach to soldiers, or even civil servants, but to planters 
and merchants who ought to pay for their own clergy- 
men ; that influential deputations of Hindoos, Moham- 
medans, and Christians waited upon me in Calcutta, 



144 A WII^TER 11^ IN^DIA. 

Madras, and Poona, and in many other places gentlemen 
privately urged me to bring parliamentary pressure to 
bear against the system of paying bishops and priests of 
the Established Church of England, and clergymen of 
the churches of Scotland and Kome, out of revenue prin- 
cipally derived from persons vrho are not Christians ; 
that chaplains, considering themselves a superior class on 
account of their official position, are often found at vari- 
ance with the more experienced and hard-working mis- 
sionaries ; that many earnest Christians in India told ine 
that it would be better even for the soldiers if the state 
did not interfere at all ; that the ritualistic practices now 
so prevalent among the class are doing serious damage to 
the progress of Christianity ; and that the devices fallen 
upon to get men, who really do no military duty, placed 
on the ecclesiastical and state-paid staff, are discreditable 
to the congregations who thus save their money, injuri- 
ous to Christianity, and contrary to the spirit of the 
Queen's Proclamation. 

'No further step can be taken about heathen temples 
until Government sets its house in order in this respect ; 
and I earnestly hope that they will not be content with 
paltry reductions and more stringent new rules, but 
boldly recognizing the justice of the complaints, as boldly 
apply the axe to the root of the tree, JSTo one ever ex- 
pressed to me an opinion that there is any objection on 
jprinoifle to chaplains for soldiers being paid out of rev- 
enue, although several persons well acquainted with the 
subject did say that they believed that the spiritual wants 



THE SUEZ CANAL — HOME. 145 

of the military would be better supplied if there were no 
State clergyman at all. A leaf should be taken out of 
the Ceylon book. In that island a time has been fixed 
when all such payments by Government shall cease, and 
the congregations connected with the riches of the Chris- 
tian churches, on its termination, be given an opportu- 
nity of doing what has been already done by the poorer 
sects — viz., supporting their own clergymen. 

We are now waiting our turn to get into the Suez 
Canal. Here are the most recent statistics in regard to 
that remarkable work, in favor of which I voted in the 
House of Commons many years ago, when we were in a 
small minority, because opposed by the engineering tal- 
ent and supposed statesmanship of Great Britain. It 
was opened in 1869. In 18Y0 there passed through it 
496 vessels, with a gross tonnage of 486,000, which paid 
6,169,357 francs ($980,277) in toll. In 1881 these fig- 
ures had risen to 2727 ships, 6,794,401 tons, and 61,274,- 
862 francs ($9,742,126), and during last year the number 
of vessels that passed through exceeded 3000. Of the 
2727 vessels in 1881, 2261 were British ; in 1870, 64 
per cent of the tonnage belonged to Great Britain ; in 
1881 that percentage had risen to 83, and it is still ris- 
ing. From its opening up to the end of May, 1882, 
18,634 steamers have passed through the canal ; of this 
number 14,169 were British, and the French come next, 
with 1048 only. The receipts during the years 1870 to 
1881 inclusive amounted to very nearly thirteen millions 
stei'ling, the average toll per ship being about £760 



146 A WINTER IIS" INDIA. 

($3630), and the net profits are now reported to amount 
to 14 or 15 per cent per annum. Shades of Kobert 
Stephenson and Lord Palmerston ! 

Bj some inexplicable arrangement we were detained 
at Suez all day, and not allowed to enter the canal until 
next morning, although a Dutch steamer which arrived 
two hours after us went in before sunset ; and when 
morning came a dense and very cold fog prevented us 
weighing anchor until 8.30, and then at 10.30 we were 
stopped for five hours in a siding until eight steamers — 
all British — passed on toward Suez. 

We spent the night at anchor in the Bitter Lakes, and 
a short distance from Ismailia, at the entrance of Lake 
Timsah, found the merchant-steamer Lisgard aground 
and blocking up the channel ; so we had to lie there for 
twenty-one hours, until she had been lightened of suffi- 
cient cargo to enable her to float. That operation might 
have been performed much quicker, but the quarantine 
regulations did not permit of assistance from the shore. 
Every one believes that this farcical system has been 
adopted at the instance of the owners of steam-launches, 
as all steamers in quarantine are obliged to have a steam- 
launch before them, for which the charge is twenty-five 
francs ($4.Y5) an hour — a direct premium on delay — the 
presence of a pilot on board the supposed infected ship 
being inadmissible. Of course a continuance or renewal 
of this preposterous restriction on trade, and enormous 
loss to shipowners and inconvenience to passengers, can- 
not be tolerated much longer. The whole proceedings 



THE SUEZ CAKAL— HOME. 147 

of the so-called sanitary commission require being 
looked into. 

The mirage was very remarkable between Ismailia and 
Port Said, the mounds in the desert appearing like 
islands in the sea. 

We were booked for the Khedwe to Malta, but 
found she had sailed the night before, and as soon as 
the Yenetia dropped anchor we were transferred to the 
Teheran^ from Calcutta. All Friday and Saturday it 
blew from the north-west, and as it had evidently been 
blowing heavier a day or two before there was a consid- 
erable sea on, and we had rather a poor time of it ; but 
Sunday dawned fair and fine, with a calm sea, and we 
reached Malta, which I had not seen for thirty-three 
years, early on Monday morning. The great increase 
of population, especially around Yaletta, and even in the 
formerly deserted region of St. Paul's Bay, struck me, 
and I observed with regret as many priests and their 
consequential beggars as before. 

Our quickest way home was by the French steamer 
which carries the British mails to Syracuse, thence by 
rail to Messina — one of the most beautiful routes in 
Europe — the mountain, rock, sea-cliff, and valley scenery 
varying in loveliness every few minutes, and majestic, 
solemn Etna presiding over all ; and so on to ^Naples by 
steamer again. 

There I read a synopsis of the Indian Budget, and was 
overjoyed to find it in every particular in accordance 
with the opinions which I had formed. It reflects the 



148 A WIKTER IK INDIA. 

highest credit on the statesmanship of Lord Kipon and 
Major Baring ; especially are they deserving of praise for 
reducing the salt-tax, notwithstanding the opposition of 
the moneyed classes — native and European — who think 
too much of themselves and too little of the poor.* 

I have since had an opportunity of perusing the East 
India financial statement as presented to Parliament in a 
blue-book, and recommend all who are interested in the 
social well-being of our great dependency to study it 
with care. Anything more admirable has seldom been 
laid before the House of Commons. The following 
from paragraph 34 will give great satisfaction to all who 
conversed with me on the subject : 

"It is the intention of Her Majesty's Government, and of the 
Government of India, that a constantly increasing share of the 
work of the country shall be performed by natives of India. Not 
only will this gradual change add to the ties which already bind 
educated natives and the chief native families to the British Gov- 
ernment, but the work will be performed more economically 
than hitherto. The number of native gentlemen holding offices 
of trust and position has increased during the last three years, 
and will continue to do so under the combined influence of the 
annual admissions to the Covenanted Civil Service in both Eng- 
land and India, and the rules of 1879, regarding appointments to 
the Uncovenanted Service." 



* "When the time comes for reducing taxation we should 
begin with the taxes on salt and clothing, which add to the 
cost of the necessaries of life." " Further reductions in the salt 
duties are, on all grounds, desirable, both for the benefit of the 
people and of the finances."— " Indian Finance," by Sir J. and 
Maj. Gen. Strachey." 



THE SUEZ CAKAL — HOME. 149 ! 

\ 

Paragraph 58 bears out what is stated in the foregoing i 

pages, regarding the poverty of the people in certain dis- \ 

tricts : \ 

" A careful examination of the economic condition of the I 

people in the various provinces of India leads to the conclusion ! 

that in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh there are but ! 
slight signs of any improvement in the mass of the people during 
the last decade. The number of people with incomes of not less 

than rs. 500 ($350) a year, derived from trade, and assessed to \ 
the License Tax in 1880-81, was 1550 less than the number as- 
sessed to the Income Tax in 1870-71 and 1871-73. This would 

seem to indicate a diminution of the trade-wealth of these Prov- ] 

inces. On the whole, it may be said that nowhere in India is a i 

reduction of taxation more required than in the North- Western | 

Provinces and Oudh." j 

j 

1 give an extract from paragraph 65, which shows that i 

the Government are fully alive to one of the great ques- - 

tions of the day : \ 

" Boards and committees for the administration of certain local | 
funds already exist in most parts of India. We now wish to 
widen the sphere of action hitherto assigned to these bodies. ] 
The Provincial Governments have, therefore, been invited to hand 
over to them such items of revenue and expenditure as may ap- 
pear most suited to give them a real interest in the administration 
of the resources at their command, and, on the other hand, to \ 
take over as a provincial charge some items of expenditure, such ; 
as police, over which local bodies cannot exercise any real control. 
I will not, however, at present discuss this question at length. i 
The Local Governments have been consulted upon the subject, ; 
and until their answers are received it will be impossible to de- 
cide upon the particular measures which it may eventually be ] 
deemed desirable to adopt. I will only say, that while we recog- \ 
nize that the development of local self-government must be grad- i 
ual, and not of a nature to outstrip the wants of the country and I 



150 A WIN^TER Ilf IN"DIA. 

the standard of political education at which the people have ar- 
rived, at the same time we are desirous of making a real step in 
advance in the proposed direction." 

Paragraph 173 should be studied bj those who, in their 
anxiety to benefit the Chinese, do not sufficiently take 
into consideration what would be the effect of any sud- 
den change in the opium duties at the present time on 
the poorer classes in India : 

*' From the language which is occasionally used on this subject 
in England, I am led to infer that many influential persons, ani- 
mated by a laudable zeal to benefit the population of China, are 
perhaps somewhat forgetful of the duty we owe to the population 
of India. It has been calculated that the average income per 
head of population in India is not more than rs. 27 ($13.50) 
a year ; and although I am not prepared to pledge myself to the 
accuracy of a calculation of this sort, it is sufficiently accurate to 
justify the conclusion that the tax-paying community is exceed- 
ingly poor. To derive any very large increase of revenue from so 
poor a population as this is obviously impossible, and if it were 
possible would be unjustifiable. Apart from the practical issues 
involved, there are, indeed, two aspects of the question from the 
point of view of public morality. If, on the one hand, it be 
urged that it is immoral to obtain a revenue from the use of opium 
among a section of the Chinese community, on the other hand, it 
may be replied that to tax the poorest classes in India in order to 
benefit China would be a cruel injustice ; and it is to be remem- 
bered that no large increase of revenue in India is possible, un- 
less by means of a tax which will affect those classes. To tax 
India in order to provide a cure, which would almost certainly be 
ineffectual, to the vices of the Chinese, would be wholly unjus- 
tifiable." 

At Paris I received the following letter from one of 
the ablest, most zealous, and most experienced of India's 
civil servants : 



THE SUEZ CAKAL— HOME. 151 

'' I must write a line to say how sorry I was not to see you 
again before you left India. The native press and public are 
unanimous in expressing gratitude to you for the patient and sym- 
pathetic hearing you have given them. All they ask for is inde- 
pendent and impartial inquiry, and they are confident that they 
will then prove the correctness of their statements and the mod- 
eration of their demands. It is a striking feature of the contro- 
versy between the Indian official and non-official world, th-at when 
unprejudiced and qualified judges, like yourself and Mr. Caird, 
come to this country, the official organs are so very angry with 
them for the opinions they form. The fact is, that a large pro- 
portion of officials, even during a long service, remain quite 
isolated and profoundly ignorant of the facts and feelings around 
them ; and an intelligent outside observer, who mixes freely with 
the natives, will learn more in a few weeks of the true state of the 
country than is known to them." 

It will be a great satisfaction to me if anything in the 
preceding pages should induce other family parties to 
follow our example, and give themselves a dehghtful 
holiday by spending '' A Winter in India." 



THE END. 



INDEX 



Address presented to the author, 116. 

Agra and the Taj Mahal, 40. 

Agra Fort, 43 

Allahabad and Benares, 56 ; its famous 

avenue», 57. 
Ambek, an extraordinary place, 26. 
American Mission, the gathering of 

school- children, 52. tjit^-^at,, ?t,„^i««o ah 

''Soirof'^S?'"^'"'" ''""'"'' '"^^ FR^E^cCfh'Sstion establishment, a 
American M. E. Church visited, 50. '^^^^^ ***' ^^' 



Darjeeling, 77. 

Delhi, ancient capital of the Great 
Mogul, 28 ;. the crisis at, 31 ; the popu- 
lation of, 31. 



P. 



B. 



Baptist Mission, premises of, 68. 

Benares, its temples and mosques, 62 ; 
one temple tenanted solely by monkeys, 
62 ; the business of, 65. 

BoMBAT, 19 ; return to, 123 ; the hand- 
somest town in the country, 124. 

Botanical Gardens, 103. 

British India, and its rulers, 137. 

British residents, how they live, 34. 

British power, probable stability of, 
113. 

Buddhist temple, visit to, 80. 

British Govt-rnraent, sums paid by, to 
Hindoo and Mohammedan places of 
worship, 143. 



C. 



G. 



Gate of Tears, the, 16. 
GuiNDY Park, 97. 



H. 

Himalayas, My first sight of the, m. 
Hindoo Hymn, 36. 
Home again. 151. 
Hotels in India, 32. 



I. 



Ikdia, its promise of future prosperity, 

71 ; the government of. 72 ; taxation, 

72 ; employment of natives, 72 ; rail- 
roads in, 75 ; departure from, 127 ; last 
night in, 127. 

Indian Ocean, on the, 135. 



Calcutta, 67 ; its inhabitants, 69 ; its j^ 

builfiings, trade, and life, 85. 

Cashmere Gate 30. j^jgj^ Masjid, the largest mosque in In- 

Christianity, few converts to, 61 ; ces- ^ij^^ 29. 

sation of hostility to, 62. Johnstont, Miss, and the medical mis- 

Cinchova plantations, 104. gion 47 

Coffee plantation, 100. Jugglers, tricks of. 64. 

Concert, A, in aid of widows' asylum, Jumna, The river, 28. 

66. 

CONJKVERAM, 105. 

Coolies, wages paid to, 83. K. 

COONOOR, 93. 

Cunningham's, Mr., book, 140; his sta- Khotub Minar, the highest pillar in the 
tisticB on trade, 141. world, 32. 



154 



IKDEX. 



Lahore, 33 ; Its population, 35. 

Land Question, The, 139. 

Lawrence, Sir Jolin, "Delhi must be 

taken," 31. 
Lawrence, Sir Henry, his grave visited, 

51. 
Lee, Sergeant, a remarkable man, 53. 
LEiTNERDr., and his college, 38. 
LucKNow, 49 ; its population, 50 ; a 

beautiful city, 50 ; its marvellous siege, 

51 ; its amusing bazaars, 52. 

M. , 

Madras, 93. 

Maharajah of Benares, 60. 

Malabar Hill, 20. 

Massacre, tale of, never told, 54. 

Monkeys, A troop of, 23. 

MoTi-Mus.TiD, or the pearl mosque, 29. 

Mutiny of 1857, 28. 

N. 
Natives, Improved treatment of, 114. 

O. 



RELiGiotis eetablishmenta, sums paid to 

142. 
RuNJEET Singh, The tomb of, 36. 



S. 



Samnugger, The jute factory of, 69. 

SENTiMENT,The, Of educated natives, 128. 

Sepoy barbarities, 54. 

SiKANDRA, from which was taken the 
Koh-i-noor, 44. 

Sounds, Extraordinary, at night, 52. 

Story, a true, 81. 

Straight, Mr. Dougl as, 57. 

Stuart, Sir Robert, chief-justice, 57. 

Suez Canal, when opened, 13 ; return to, 
142; interesting information concern- 
ing, 145. 

SuRAT, The, 13. 



Taj Mahal, the finest building in the 

world, 41. 

ka-Plantations, 74. 
Thomson, Mr., Prof, of English Litera- 

ature, 48. 
Tiger Hill, 78. 
Traill, Rev. John, 27. 



V. 



O'Neill, Rev. Father, 41. 

p 

Valentine, Dr., medical missionary, 48. 
PooNA, At, 109 ; six Government schools Venice, varied views of, 10. 
for females at, 109. Vishnu Temple, 106. 



R. 

Railway travelling in India, 24. 
Red Sea, The color of, 15. 



Voyage out, The, 9.^ 

W. 
Weir, Mr., the banker, 48. 



165. 



OB o o is: s I nsr 

THE STANDARD LIBRARY, 

TMEIR STERLING WORTH. 

OPINIONS OF CRITICS. 



I. 



Life of Cromwell. 



NEW TOBK SUW: 

"Mr. Hood's biography is a positive 
boon to the mass of readers, because it 
presents a more correct view of the great 
soldier than any of the shorter lives 
published, vs^hether we compare it with 
Southey's, Guizofs, or even Forster's." 

PACIFIC CUUBCUMAN, San 

Francisco : 

" The fairest and most readable of the 
numerous biographies of Cromwell." 
GOOD IITEBATURE, New York : 

" If all these books will prove as fresh 
and readable as Hood's 'Cromwell,' the 
literary merit of the series will be as high 
as the price is low." 
NBW YORK DAILY GRAPH- 
IC: 

" Hood's ' Cromwell ' is an excellent 
account of the great Protector. Crom- 
well was the heroic servant of a sublime 
cause. A complete sketch of the man 
and the period." 
CHRISTIAN UNION, New Tork : 

" A valuable biography of Cromwell, 
told with interest in every part and with 
such condensation and skill in arrange- 
ment that prominent events are made 
clear to all." 



SCHOOL J^OURNAL, New Tork: 
" Mr. Hood's style is pleasant, clear, 
and flowing, and he sets forth and holds 
his own opinion well." 

EPISCOPAL RECORDER, Phil- 
adelphia : 
"An admirable and able Life of Oli- 
ver Cromwell, of which we can unhesi- 
tatingly speak words of praise." 

NEW YORK TELEGRAM: 

"Full of the kind of information with 
which even the well-read like to refresh 
themselves." 

INDIANAPOLIS SENTINEL, 

Ind. : 
"The book is one of deep interest. 
The style is good, the analysis searching, 
and will add much to the author's fame 
as an able biographer." 

THE WORKMAN, Pittsburgh, Pa. : 
" This book tells the story of Crom- 
well's life in a captivating way. It reads 
like a romance. The paper and print- 
ing are very attractive." 

NEW YORK HERALD : 

" The book is one of deep interest. 
The style is good, the analysis search- 
ing." 



II. 



Science in Short Chapters. 



HOJIRNAL OF EDUCATION, 

Boston : 
*' * Science in Short Chapters ' supplies 
ft growing want among a large class of 



busy people, who have not time to con- 
sult scientific treatises. Written in clear 
and simple style. Very interesting and 
instructive." 



156 



ACADEMY, London, England : 

"Mr. Williams has presented these 
scientific subjects to the popular mind 
with much clearness and force. It may 
be read with advantage by those without 
special scientific training." 
MELIGIO US TELESCOPE, Day- 
ton, Ohio : 

" It is historic, scientific, and racy. A 
book of intense practical thought, which 
one wishes to read carefully and then 
read again." 

NEW YORK SCMOOIi JOTTR- 
JVJLi; 

*'A volume of handy science, not 
only interesting as an abstract subject, 
but valuable for its clear expositions of 
every-day science. Of Professor Will- 
iams as an authority upon such subjects, 
it is unnecessary to comment. He al- 
ready has a fame as a scientific writer 
which needs no recommendation." 
JPAIjL MALZ gazette, London, 
England : 

" Original and of scientific value." 



GRAPHIC, London : 

" Clear, simple, and profitable." 
CANADA BAPTIST, Toronto r 

" A rich book at a marvellously low 
price. The style is sprightly and sim- 
ple. Every chapter contains something 
we all want to know." 

NEWARK DAILY ADVER- 
TISER,-^. J.: 

" As an educator this book is worth a 
year's schooling, and it will go where 
schools of a high grade cannot penetrate. 
For such a book twenty-five cents seems 
a ridiculous sum." 

tT. W. BASH:F0RT>, Auburndale, 
Mass. : 

" A marvellous book, as fascinating as 
Dickens, to be consulted as an authority 
along with Britannica, and even fuller 
of practical hints than the latter's ar- 
ticles. I do not know how you cam 
print its 300 pages for 25 cents." 
AMERICAN, Philadelphia : 

"Mr. Williams' work is a practical 
compendium." 



III. 



The American Humorist. 



COMMERCIAL GAZETTE, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio : 

" It is finely critical and appreciative ; 
exceedingly crisp and unusually enter- 
taining from first to last." 
CHRISTIAN INTELLIGEN- 
CER, New York : 

"A book of pleasant reading, with 
enough sparkle in it to cure any one of 
the blues." 

CONGREGATIONALIST, Bos- 
ton : 

" They are based upon considerable 
■tudy of these authors, are highly ap- 
preciative in tone, and show a percep- 
tivity of American humor which is yet a 
rarity among Englishmen." 
SALEM TIMES, Mass.: 

"No writer in England was, in all 
respects, better qualified to write a book 
on American Humorists than Haw»is," 



CHRISTIAN tlOURNAL, To- 
ronto : 

" We have been specially amused with 
the chapter on poor Artemus Ward, 
which we read on a railway journey. 
We fear our fellow-passengers would 
think something ailed us, for laugh we 
did, in spite of all attempts to preserve 
a sedate appearance." 
OCCIDENT, San Francisco : 

" This book is pleasant reading, with 
sparkle enough in it— as the writer is him- 
self a wit— to cure one of the 'blues.' " 
D ANBURY NEWS, Conn.: 

" Mr. Haweis gives a brief bibliograph- 
ical sketch of each writer mentioned in 
the book, an analysis of his style, and 
classifies each into a distinct type from 
the others. He presents copious ex- 
tracts from their works, making an en- 
tertaining book." 



157 



CENTRAL BAPTIST, St. Louis : 

*' A perusal of this volume will give the 
reader a more correct idea of the charac- 
ter discussed than he would probably 
get from reading their biographies. The 
lecture is analytical, penetrative, terse, 
incisive, and candid. The book is worth 
its price, and will amply repay reading.'" 

SCHOOI^ JOTTRNAI^, New York : 

" Terse and brief as the soul of wit 
Itself." 

INDIANAPOLIS SBNTINEZ, 

Indiana : 
"It presents, in fine setting, the wit 
andwisdomof Washington Irving, Oliver 
W. Holmes, James R. Lowell, Artemus 
Ward, Mark Twain, and Bret Harte, and 
does it con amove.'''* 



THE MAIL, Toronto, Ont. r 

"Rev. H. R. Haweis ia a writer to© 
well-known to need commendation at 
our hands for, at least, his literary style. 
The general result is that not a page re- 
pels us and not a sentence tires. We 
find ourselves drawn pleasantly along in 
just the way we want to go ; all our 
favorite points remembered, all our own 
pet phrases praised, and the good things 
of each writer brought forward to re- 
fresh one's memory. In fine, the book 
is a most agreeable companion." 
LUTHERAN OBSERVER, TUla,- 
delphia : 
" The peculiar style, the mental char- 
acter, and the secret of success, of each 
of these prominent writers, are presented 
with great clearness and discrimination." 



IV. 



Liyes of Illustrious Shoemakers. 



WESTERN CHRISTIAN AD- 
VOCATE, Cincinnati : 

" When we first took up this volume 
we were surprised that anybody should 
attempt to make a book with precisely 
this form and title. But as we read its 
pages we were far more surprised to 
find them replete with interest and in- 
struction. It should be sold by the 
scores of thousands." 
PRESBYTESIAN OBSERVER, 
Baltimore : 

" The writer of this book well under- 
stands how to write biography— a gift 
vouchsafed only to a few." 
NEW YORK HERALD : 

" The sons of St. Crispin have always 
been noted for independence of thought 
in politics and in religion ; and Mr. 
Winks has written a very readable ac- 
count of the lives of the more famous of 
the craft. The book is quite interest- 
ing." 

DANBXTRT NEWS, Conn. : 

"The Standard Libbary has been 
enriched by this addition." 



LITERARY WORLD, London': 

" The pages contain a great deal of in- 
teresting material— remarkable episodes 
of experience and history." 
BOSTON GLOBE: 

" A valuable book, containing much in- 
teresting matter and an encouragement 
to self-help." 

CHRISTIAN STANDARD, Cin- 
cinnati : 

" It will inspire a noble ambition, and 
may redeem many a life from failure." 
CHRISTIAN SECRETARY, Harlr 
ford. Conn. : 

" Written in a sprightly and popular 
manner. Full of interest." 
EVANGELICAL MESSENGER, 
Cleveland : 

" Everybody can read the book with 
interest, but the young will be specially 
profited by its perusal." 
LEICESTER CHRONICLE,Eng- 
land : 

" A work of the deepest interest asd 
of singular ability." 



1S8' 



COMMEHCIjLIj GAZETTJS, Cin- 
cinnati : 
" One of the most popular books pub- 
liBbed lately." 

CENTMAIj METBOmST, Ken- 
tucky : 
" This is a choice work— full of fact 
and biography. It will be read with in- 
terest, more especially by that large 
class whose awl and hammer provide the 
human family with soles for their feet." 



TSE WE8TEMN MAIZ, England : 
" Written with taste and tact, in a 
graceful, easy style. A book most in- 
teresting to youth." 

CHRISTtAN GXTAHniAN, To- 
ronto : 
" It is a capital book." 
EVANGELICAI^ CJSURCM^ 
Man, Toronto : 
""This is a most interesting book, 
written in a very popular style." 



V. 



Flotsam and Jetsam. 



SATURDAY SEVIEW, Eng.: 

"Amusing and readable. . . . Among 
the successful books of this order must 
be classed that which Mr. Bowles has re- 
cently offered to the public." 
NEW YORK WORJLn: 

"■ This series of reflection?, some phil- 
osophic, others practical, and many hu- 
morous, make a cheerful and healthful 
little volume, made the more valuable 
by its index." 

CENTRAL METHODIST, Cat- 
tlesburgh, Ky. : 

" This is a romance of the sea, and is 
one of the most readable and enjoyable 
books of the season." 
ZUTSERAN OBSERVER, Phil. : 

" The cargo on this wreck must have 
been above all estimate in value. How 
much ' Jetsam ' there may be we cannot 
tell, but what we have seen is all ' Flot- 
sam,' and will float and find its way in 
enriching influence to a thousand hearts 
and homes." 
NEW YORK HERALD: 

"It is a clever book, full of quaint 
conceits and deep meditation. There 
Is plenty of entertaining and original 
thought, and ' Flotsam and Jetsam ' is 
indeed worth reading." 

CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, Nash- 
ville, Tenn. : 
"Many of the author's comments are 
quite acute, and their personal tone will 
give them an additional flavor." 



METHODIST RECORDER, Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. : 

"In addition to the charming inci- 
dents related, it fairly sparkles with fresh 
and original thoughts which cannot fail 
to interest and profit." 
GOOD LITERATURE, New York: 

"... Never fails to amuse and inter- 
est, and it is one of the pleasantest feat- 
ures of the book that one may open it at 
a venture and be sure of finding some- 
thing original and readable." 
HERALD AND PRESBYTER, 
Cincinnati, Ohio : 

" His manner of telling the story of his 
varied observations and experiences, with 
his reflections accompanying, is £0 easy 
and familiar, as to lend his pages a fas- 
cination which renders it almost impos- 
sible to lay down the book until it is read 
to the end." 
NEW YORK LEDGER: 

" It is quite out of the usual method of 
books of travel, and will be relished all 
the more by those who enjoy bits of 
quiet humor and piquant sketches of 
men and things on a yachting journey.'* 
NEW YORK STAR: 

"Not too profound for entertainment, 
and yet pleasantly suggestive. A volume 
of clever sayings." 

CHRISTIAN SECRETARY, 

Hartford, Conn. : 
"It is a hook well worth reading, . . , 
fuUof thotaglit." 



159 



PMES B TTJEBIAX tTO JTRNAZ, 

Philadelphia : 
"A racy, original, thoughtful book. 
On the slight thread of sea-voyaging it 
Jhangs the terse thoughts of an original 
mind on many subjects. The style is so 
epicy that one reads with interest even 
When not approving." 



CHRISTIAN lyTBLLIGEN^ 
CER, New York : 
" No one can spend an hour or two in. 
Mr. Bowles' gallery of graphic pen-pict- 
ures without being so deeply impressed 
with their originality of conception and 
lively, epicy expression, as to talk about 
them to others." 



VI. 



The Highways of Literature. 



NATION AT. BAPTIST, Phila. : 

•• A book full of wisdom ; exceedineily 
bright and practical." 

PACIFIC CHUBCHMAX, San 

Francisco : 
*' The best answer we have seen to the 
common and most puzzling question, 
* What shall I read ? ' Scholarly and 
beautiful." 

DANBXTBY NEWS: 

"Its hints, rules, and directions for 
reading are, just now, what thousands 
of people are needing." 

CMMISTIAN WITNESS, New- 
market, N. H. : 
*' Clear, terse, elegant in style. A boon 



to young students, a pleasure for schol- 
ars." 
NEW TOBK HEBALI): 

"Mr. David Pryde, the author of 
' Highways of Literature ; or, What to 
Read, and How to Read,' is an erudite 
Scotchman who has taught with much 
success in Edinburgh. His hints on the 
best books and the best method of mas- 
tering them are valuable, and likely to 
prove of great practical use." 
NEW TOBK TABLET: 

" This is a most useful and interesting 
work. It consists of papers in which 
the author offers rules by which the 
reader may discover the best books, and 
be enabled to study them properly." 



VII. 



Colin Clout's Calendar. 



XiEEDS MEBCUBT, England : 

"The best specimens of popular sci- 
entific expositions that we have ever 
had the good fortune to fall in with." 
NEW YOBK NATION: 

" The charm of such books is not a 
little heightened when, as in this case, 
a few touches of local history, of cus- 
toms, words, and places are added." 
AMERICAN BEFOBMEB, New 
York: 
" There certainly is no deterioration in 
the quality of the books of the Standard 
Library. This book consists of short 



chapters upon natural history, written 
in an easy, fascinating style, giving rare 
and valuable information concerning 
trees, plants, flowers, and animals. Such 
books should have a wide circulation 
beyond the list of regular subscribers. 
Some will criticise the author's inclina- 
tion to attribute the marvellous things 
which are found in these plants, animals, 
etc., to a long process of development 
rather than to Divine agency. But the 
information is none the less valuable, 
whatever may be the process of these 
developments." 



160 



EDINB UBGM SCOTSMAN, Scot- 
land : 
"There can be no doubt of Grant 
Allen's competence as a writer on nat- 
ural history subjects," 

NEW YOBK MJEBALD: 

*' A book that lovers of natural history 
will read with delight. The author is 
Buch a worshipper of nature that he 
gains our sympathy at once." 

THE ACADEMY, London : 

" The point in which Mr Grant Allen 
is beyond rivalry is in his command of 
language. By this we do not mean only 
his rich vocabulary, but include also his 
arrangement of thought and his manip- 
ulation of sentences. We could imagine 
few better k-esons to a pupil of Eng- 
lish than to be set to analyze and explain 
the charm of Mr. Grant Allen's style." 

CANADIAN BAPTIST, Toronto : 
" Mr, Grant Allen is one of the few 
scientific men who can invest common 
natural objects and processes with poeti- 
cal beauty and make them attractive to 
ordinary readers." 



HEMALD, Monmouth, Oregon : 

"A wonderful book by a charming 
naturalist. Lovers of flowers, birds, 
plants, etc., will prize this volume high- 
ly," 

NEW YORK J^OURNAIi OP 
COMMERCE: 

" A charming volume, free from the 
taint of exaggeration and sensational- 
ism." 

INDIANAPOLIS SENTINEL: 

" He is as keen an observer as Thoreau 
or Burroughs." 

CHRISTIAN STANDARD, Cin- 
cinnati : 

*' They are written in a pleasant and 
captivating style, and contain much valu- 
able information." 

METHODIST PROTESTANT, 
Baltimore. 

"One of the finest productions of 
modern times." 
GOOD LITERATURE, New York: 

" A trustworthy guide in natural his- 
tory, as well as a delightful, entertaining 
writer." 



Till. 



George Eliot's Essays. 



THE CRITIC, New York : 

" Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls have done 
a real service to George Eliot's innumer- 
able admirers by reprinting in their 
popular Standard Libraky the great 
novelist's occasional contributions to the 
periodical press." 
NEW YORK SUN: 

"In the case of George Eliot espe- 
cially, whose reviews were anonymous, 
and who could never have supposed that 
euch fugitive ventures would ever be 
widely associated with the name of a 
diUident and obscure young woman, we 
cain access in her early essays, as in no 
other of her published writings, to the 
sanctuary of her deepest convictions, and 
to the intellectual workshop in which 



literary methods and processes were 
tested, discarded, or approved, and liter- 
ary tools fashioned and manipulated 
long before the author had discerned the 
large purposes to which they were to be 
applied. . . . Looking back over the 
whole ground covered by these admira- 
ble papers, we are at no loss to under- 
stand why George Eliot should have 
made it a rule to read no criticisms on 
her own stories. She had nothing to 
learn from critics. She was justified in 
assuming that not one of those who took 
upon themselves to appraise her achieve- 
ments had given half of the time or a 
tithe of the intellect, to the determina- 
tion of the right aims and processes of 
the English novels which as these re- 



161 



views attest, she had herself expended 
on that object before venturing upon 
that form of composition which Fielding 
termed the modern epic." 
EXAMINER, New York : 

"These essays ought to be read by 
any one who would understand this 
part of George Eliot's career ; and, in- 
deed, they furnish the key to all her 
subsequent literary achievements." 
JSMOOKLTN DJLILT EAGLE: 

"It is rather suprising that these es- 
says have not been collected and pub- 
lished before, and it is a matter of con- 
gratulation that they are now issued." 

CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, New 

York: 
" They show the versatility of the great 
novelist. One on Evangelical Teaching 
is especially interesting." 

INniANAPOZIS SENTINEL: 

"Nathan Shepherd's introduction to 
these essays is worth many times the 
price of the volume." 

EPISCOPAL METHODIST, Bal- 
timore : 
" Everybody of culture wants to read 
all George Eliot wrote." 



NORTHERN CHRISTIAN AD- 
VOCATE, Syracuse : 

"The compiler of this collection haa 
done a unique and a useful work." 
METHODIST PR O TESTANT, 
Baltimore : 

" They comprise some of the best of 
the author's writings." 
ZION'S HERALD, Boston : 

" As remarkable illustrations of her 
masculine metaphysical ability as is evi- 
denced in her strongest fictions." 
CHURCH TTNION, New York: 

"Nathan Sheppard, the collector of 
the ten essays in this form, has written a 
highly laudatory but critical introduction 
to the book, on her ' Analysis of Mo- 
tives,' and after reading it, it seems to 
us that every one who would read her 
works profitably and truly, should first 
have read it." 

HARTFORD EVENING POST: 

" They are admirable pieces of literary 
workmanship, but they are much more 
than that. . . . These essays are triumphs 
of critical analysis combined with .epi- 
grammatic pungency, subtle irony, and 
a wit that never seems strained." 



IX. 



Charlotte Bronte. 



DAILY ADVERTISER, T^iewsLvk, 

N. J. : 

"There was but one Charlotte Bronte, 
as there was but one William Shake- 
speare. To write her life acceptably one 
must have made it the study of years ; 
have studied it in the integrity of all its 
relations, and considered it from the 
broadest as well as from the narrowest 
aspect. This is what Mrs. HoUoway 
has done." 
ZION'S HERALD, Boston : 

" This well-written sketch, with selec- 
tions from her writings, will be appre- 
ciated and give a clear idea of the re- 
markable intellectr.al ability of this 
gifted but heavily -burdened woman." 



NEW YORK HERALD: ] 

" There are, at times, flights of elo- ] 

quence that rise to grandeur." I 

BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE: 1 

" Managed with the rare skill we might j 

expect at the hands of a fair-minded I 

woman dealing with the traits of charac- ' 
ter and the actual career of one who, 
amid extraordinary circumstances of 

adversity, plodded her way to fame i 

within the span of a brief lifetime." | 
SOUTHERN CHURCHMAN, 
Richmond, Va.: 

"There are few memoirs more sad i 

than those of this gifted woman and her ^ 

sisters. An interesting volume at the ] 

cheap price of fifteen cents." ] 



162 



O^OUBXAZ ANJ> MESSENGEB, 

Cincinnati : 

"The reader, for a small sum, will 
obtain quite a thorough understanding 
of the characteristics and literary abil- 
ity of Miss Bronte, and also be placed 
in possession of some of her rarest 
thoughts." 

EPISCOPAL BECOBDEB, Phil- 
adelphia : 

•' The manner in which the reminis- 
cences are narrated is very agreeable, 



and the reader wonders how so fascinat- 
ing a life-story could be found in the 
proey confines of literature. . . . A thor- 
oughly enjoyable style of description 
and a deep sympathy with the subject 
render Mrs. Holloway's sketch exceed- 
ingly readable." 

CENTBAZ CHBISTIAN AD» 
roc ATE, St. Louis : 
"The book will be welcomed by all 
lovers of pure bibliographical litera- 
ture." 



Sam Hobart. 



JDAILT FBEE PBESS, London, 
Ontario : 

*' The continual additions made to the 
Standard Library of works of a high 
order is evidence that the reading public 
can easily absorb something more useful 
than the mere novel. . . . The latest 
issue deals with the life of a railroad 
engineer— Sam Hobart, one of the mill- 
ion men who are employed in the rail- 
way service of America. ... It is a 
marvel of cheapness and biographical 
excellence." 
NEW TOBK WOBILD: 

"A graphic narrative and a strong 
picture of a life full of heroism and 
changes. Pull of encouragement, and as 
thrilling as a romance." 
G VABDIANf Truro, Nova Scotia : 

" The author's object in writing it was 
to portray the possibilities of happiness 
and usefulness within the reach of a 
workingman content to fill the sphere of 
usefulness awarded him, and willing to 
lend a helping hand to do work for God 
and humanity. It is just such a book as 
we would like to see in the hands of rail- 
road men." 

DANBVBY NEWS: 

"It is doubtful if any working person 
can read this book, and not become a 
.better worker and a better man." 



EPISCOPAIj METHOniSTfBAl' 

timore : 

" A charming book. All railroad men 
will be interested in it, and it will pay 
professional men to read it." 
CHBISTIAN SECBETABT, 
Hartford, Conn.: 

" The object of the book is to show 
how happy and useful a workingman 
may be, if content in his work and will- 
ing to do well. Written in a very in- 
teresting way, and while it will probably 
be devoured by railroad men, it will af- 
ford very pleasurable reading to all." 
BELIGIOUS HEBAZn, Hart- 
ford, Conn.: 

"An entertaining book designed to 
aid in making one true and noble." 
lUTMEBAN OBSEBVEB, Phila- 
delphia : 

"Dr. -Fulton has done a good work 
in writing this story of a railroad man. 
It is a genuine record of heroic fidelity 
to dnty. Let it be scattered by the 
thousands." 

CnVBCB ADVOCATE, Harris- 
burgh : 

"If every workingman and employer 
would follow its principles, the solution 
of the Labor Question would be near at 
hand." 



PUBLICATIONS OP FUNIC &» WAGNALLS, NEW yORK". 



163 



GEMS OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

From the Writings of Dr. Guthrie, arranged under 
the subjects which they illustrate. 
i^« By an American Ciergf jitaan* 
Price, in Cloth, $1.50. 

This book abounds in picturesque similes. Dr. Gntlirie has rarely, 
if ever, been equaled either in the number, beauty or force of the 
illustrations with which his sermons and ■writings abound. They 
have been collected by an American clergyman, a great admirer of 
the author, and the book forms a perfect storehouse of anecdotes, 
comparisons, examples and illustrations. It contains tbe choicest ctf 
bis illustrations, arranged under the subjects which they illustraila. 

Ihe Lmdon Times says: "Dr. Guthrie is the most elegant orator in 
Europe." 

Dr. Gandlish 8ajs'> "Dr. Guthrie's genius has long since placed 
him at the head of all the gifted and popular preachers of our day." 

Dr. James W. Alexander says : *'I listened to him for fifty minutes^ 
but they passed like nothing." 



The Western Cliristian Ad- 
vocate says : "Dr. Guthrie was pe- 
culiarly happy in the use of brilliant 
and forcible illustrations in his ser- 
mons and writings. An American has 
selected many of these gems of thought 
and arranged them under the subjects 
which they illustrate. Readers and 
preachers will enjoy them, and will find 
many beautiful sentiments and seed- 
thoughts for present and future use." 

The Boston Simday Olobe 

Bays : "Dr. Guthrie's illustrations are 
rich and well chosen and give great 
force to his ideas. Love, faith, hope, 
charity are the pillars of hi;3 beUef." 

Tlie lixitliera n Observer, Phila- 
delphia, says: "The power of illustra- 
tion should be cultivated by preachers 
of the Gospel, and this volume of speci- 
mens, if used aright, will furnish valu- 
able suggestions. A good illustration 
in a sermon awakens the imagination, 
helps the memory and gives the barb 
to truth that it may fasten in the 
ieart." 



Tlie Christian Intellig<>nc«r 

says : " It is a large repository full of 
stirring thoughts set in those splendid 
forms of ' spiritualized imagination,' of 
which Dr. Guthrie was the peerleas 
master." 

Tlie Christian Observer, Lonis- 

ville, says: "No words of ours cocdd 
add to its value." 

The Bostr?n Post says: "A rare 

mine of literary wealth." 

The Observer, New York, says: "Ifc 
was not given to every generatiou to , 
have a Guthrie." 

The Chr's*i«»n Advocate, New 

York, says: "This book will be read 
with interest by the religious world." 

The Sion's HeraliS, Boston, says: 
"Preachers will appreciate this vol- 
ume." 

The Christian Gnardian. To- 
ronto, says: "An eKceedinglyint^esting 
and valuable work." 



Jia* The above works will be sent by mail, postage paid, oh receipt qf the price. 



164 



PUBLICATIONS OF FUNK &> WAGNALLS, NEW YORK. 



TALKS TO FARMERS. 

BY CHARLES H. SPURGEON. 

300 pp., 12ino, Clt)th, $1.00. 

This is the last, and one of the best, of the wonderful productions 
of the fertile pen and prolific brain of Mr. Spurgeon. It consists of a 
series of Talks to Farmers. Each Talk is a short sermon from a 
text on some subject concerning agriculture. Mr. Spurgeon is as 
much at home in, and as familiar with, the scenes of nature as he is 
with the stores and business of mighty London. 

WHAT IS THOUGHT OF IT. 

Canadian Baptist says: "Our 

jjeaders need no information about Mr. 
Spurgeon. His name is a houBehold 
word. They read his sermons con- 
stantly. They have only to be told that 
something new of his has appeared, and 
they are eager to procure and read. In 
nothing, perhaps, does Mr. Spurgeon's 
greatness manifest itself more con- 
spicuously than in his wonderful 
power of adapting his discourses to the 
needs of those to whom he speaks. 
•John Ploughman's Talks ' and ' John 
Ploughman's Pictures' are admirable 
illustrations ©f this power. So is the 
book before us. It will be especially 
interesting to farmers, but all wiU en- 
Joy the practical common sense, the 
abundance of illustrative anecdote, the 
depth of spiritual insight, the richness 
of imagery, that prevail in the volume. 
The subjects of the different chapters 
are: 'The Sluggard's Farm,' -The 
Broken Fence,' 'Frost and Thaw,' 



'The Com of Wheat Dying to Bring 
Forth Fruit,' 'The Ploughman/ 
'Ploughing the Eock,' 'The Parable 
of the Sower,' ' The Principal Wheat.' 
' Spring in the Heart,' • Farm Labor- 
ers,' 'What the Farm Laborers Can 
Do and What They Cannot Do,* 'The 
Sheep before the Shearers,' 'In the 
Hay Field,' ' Spiritual Gleaning,' 
'Meal Time in the Cornfield,' 'The 
Leading Wagon,' 'Threshing,' 'The 
Wheat in the Barn.' Every farmer 
should read this book." 

Tlie Cliristian i^onitor, St. 
Louis, Mo., says : "Most interesting and 
unique. The arguments in favor of 
ChrisManity are able and convincing, 
and there is not a dry .uninteresting line 
in the book; the distinguished author 
presents the principles of religious life 
in a novel but instructive manner, and 
the garniture of truth and earnestness 
in his competent hands makes the book 
eminently readable," 



This American edition is edited by Talbot W. Chambebs, D.D. 544 
large octavo pages. Cloth, $2.50. 



Howard Crosby, D.O., says : 
•* I consider Godet a man of soundest 
learning and purest orthodoxy." 

Tliomas Armitage, D.O., says: 

"Especially must I commend the fair, 
pain8takiBg,thorougb and devout work 
of Dr. Godet. All his works are wel- 
come to every true thinker." 



Artlinr Brooks, D.I>., says : 

"Any one acquainted with Godet's 
other works will congratulate himself 
that the same author's clear logic and 
deep learning, as brought to bear upon 
the diflaculties of the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans, are to be made accessible through 
this publication." 



J8@=- The aiove w rks will he sent by tn.J.il, postage paidf on receipt »f the pnct. 



165 



T5e "Che^p Ijood Boo\" piioWem. 

THIS PROBLEM MUST BE SOLVED IF THE MASSES IN 

AMERICA ARE TO BE HELD TO VIRTUE AND 

TRUE MANLINESS. 



The Demoralizing Effects of Bad Books. 



A man's associates determine his 
character. Our most intimate compan- 
ions are the authors of the books we 
read; they are with us when others are 
denied our presence; they enter our 
homes, and, unquestioned, cross the 
threshold of our most private cham- 
bers. The parent can guard his daugh- 
ter against the wrong comrade, but 
how watch the author with whom she 
communes ? The comrade can be seen: 
the author in his book is easily con- 
cealed and communed with, in her 
chamber, when she is thought to be 
alone. What suggestive words, what 
descriptions of deception, of betrayal, 
of plots and counterplots, what hot 
words of passion she reads without a 
thought of wrong which, if she heard 
spoken, would crimson her face with 
blushes ! 

This i3 true, not of those books only 
that have a bad reputation, but of 
hundreds of books that joass as respect- 
able. Boys and girls, men and women, 
of the better families, all over the 
country, are reading daily descriptions 
that would not dare be uttered aloud in 
their presence : not now, but by and by, 
' when the evil communication has 
I wrought its perfect work in the cor- 
j ruption of manners, they will be heard 
* and repeated without a blush. 
f Ttiere are fathers — men of the world, 
who would shoot dead the villain who 
dared speak in the presence of their 
daughters words one-tenth as black as 
these same daughters often read. Yet 
a thought read is a thought thought 
and as a man thinketh so he is. 
O foolish parents and educators ! why 



are ye so careful of what enters th« 
ear and so heedless of what enters the 
eye ? 

The secret of the failure of many a 
faithful ministry, of the waywardness 
and final destruction of thousands of 
the most promising of boys and girls — 
the mentally active — is concealed be- 
tween the covers of the books they 
read. 

See to what monstrous proportions 
this evil has grown 1 

In New York City alone over 200,000 
boots of fiction, mostly trashy and 
hurtful, are printed every week. These 
books, by circulating libraries or pri- 
vate lending, pass from family to fami- 
ly, so that many read the same book. 
Besides over a million copies of the 
sensational story papers are issued from 
the New York presses each week — that 
is, about one such paper to every ten 
families I Then, what vast quantities 
are supplied by other cities I 

Now, think of the class of men and 
women who are, usually, the authors 
of these flashy stories, and who are 
securing actually a more universal and 
a closer hearing than our preachers of 
all denominations. Representatives of 
this class can often be seen on the 
streets of New York with blear eyes 
and tangled hair and lecherous looks- 
beings from whom you instinctively 
recoil. You had rather see a daughter 
of yours, just budding into woman- 
hood, clasp the hand of a smallpox 
patient, than, in social equality, the 
hand of such an one. Yet, believe it, 
ye doting fathers, ye thoughtless, con- 
fiding clergymen, ye educators, philan- 



166 



thropists, these beings from whom you 
BO recoil are boon companions of four- 
fifths of the mentally awakened boys 
and girls of America. 

Is this an esaggeration ? Look at a 
single fact. A publisher of popular 
books in New York recently said ; 

•• Some time since I inserted in 

[a popular religious New York journal] 
at a cost of $60.00, a large display adver- 
tisement of good standard books. In 
the same issue of this paper I inserted 
at a cost of $1.25 a small advertisement 
of a flash sensational book. What do 
y*l» think was the result ? WeU, my 
$60.00 advertisement brought me six 
orders for my good books, while my 
$1.25 advertisement brought me one 
hundred and ihirty orders for my bad 
book. Yet this was a religious paper, 
and the readers presumably church 
members 1 " 



This incident throws a flash of elec- 
tric light— revealing (1) the wide spread- 
ing of this evil of pernicious reading. 
(2) A reason why it is so much easier to 
publish the sensational book at low 
rates than it is to publish the standard 
book: $1.25 invested in advertising 
brings over one hundred orders for the 
one; and $60.00, similarly invested, 
brings but six orders for the other. 

These facts make plain why we must 
have the co-operation of the clergy and 
others if good literature is to be pub- 
lished permanently at low rates. Bad 
literature wiU run itself. It is water 
going down-hill. Some other force 
than gravity must pull water up-hill. 
The force that will make cheap good 
literature permanently possible must 
be generated in the hearts of the true 
educators and philanthropiats, devel- 
oped Christians. 



The Educational Effect of Good Books. 



Books beyond anything else are edu- 
cators of the people. 

The intellectual, social and moral 
character of a people must be largely 
an outgrowth of their reading. The 
character of the books already issued 
in the Standard Library, and of those 
now announced for future issue, is a 
sufficient guarantee that the educa- 
tional effect of a general reading of the 
books comprising this Library must 
prove most satisfactory. 

In the warfare against bad literature 
our motto has been ' ' Conqceb by Ee- 
pLAOiNG." Mere denunciation is of 
little avail. The mind must be filled. 
To prove to the people that the books 
that they are reading are worthless, 
and often vicious, will not be of any 
permanent advantage unless you place 
in their hands interesting books of 
positive value. Give them something 
else to think about, and they will be 



easily weaned from worthless trash. 
The quality of the matter in our 
library is always standard. Science, 
History, Biography, Essays, and Travels 
are included in this series. The educa- 
tional result in a popular distribution 
of such books cannot be overesti- 
mated. Good books are needed at 
low prices to stimulate the masses to 
higher attainments. The question is 
—Shall the manhood and womanhood 
of our country sink to the standard of 
the Dime Novel, or rise to that of the 
choicest literature in the English lan- 
guage? Why should any waste their 
spare hours over third-rate books, when 
they might spend them with the great- 
est and best thinkers of the world ? 

None but absolutely new books get 
into this Library. Hence a great 
feature is freshness. Thus there is no 
danger that a subscriber will receive a 
duplicate of a book he already has. 



167 



How the Advocates of Qood Cheap Books 
Can Help Us. 



If vigorously sustained, a good and 
lasting result wiU be secured. 

TJnassistod we can do little. We can, 
at most, but supply ammunition ; tbe 
fighting must be done by tbe clergy 
and tbe advocates of good reading 
throughout the country. 

There is most urgent need for this 
reform. If not, why would such men 
as Drs, Hall, Ezra Abbott, Mark Hop- 
kins, Wm. M. Taylor, and scores of 
others of representative men in differ- 
ent spheres of life and parts of the 
country, so unanimously and enthusi- 
Biastically send us words of God- 
speed ? 

Is not this enthusiastic support most 
reasonable ? • 

Eead and act at once. To accomplish 
the work this enterprise is fitted to do. 



we must have your enthusiastic and 
persistent co-operation. Hundreds of 
the ablest preachers in the land are 
giving us their hearty support. 
Many of them have not deemed it out 
of place to attack the bad book in the 
pulpit and commend the good. 

You can do us effective work by the 
distribution of descriptive circulars ; 
urging your friends to purchase the 
books ; organizing reading circles i8 
your neighborhoods, and in many other 
ways that will readily suggest them- 
selves to your mind. 

The price of subscription for the 
entire 23 books is $5.00— $2.50 now. 
and $2.50 July 2, when the first haK 
of the series will be completed. 

Can you not secure for us some sub- 
scribers? Try it. 



Representative Clergymen Heartily Indorsing 
this Plan. 



Chas. H. Hall D. D., Holy Trinity 
Eoiscopal Church, Brooklyn, says : 
"In the great strife for the greatest 
good of the largest number, put me 
down as on tbe side of this plan. 
Place my name on your subscription 
list." 

Pres. Mark Hopking, D.jy., of 

Williams College, says : 
" The attempt is worthy of all 
commendation aad encouragement. 
It will be a great boon to the cauntry." 

X:zra Aboft, D. D., LiL..!)., of 

Harvard College, says : 
" I heartily approve of your project." 

T; 'W, Chambers, D.D., Colle- 
giate Reformed Church, New YorK, 

says: 
" The plan seems to me both praise- 
"vrorthy and feasible." 

Sylvester- P. Scovfl, D.D., First 
Presbyterian Church, Pittsburg, 
Pa., says : 
*' Your plan deserves a place in the 

category of moral reforms." 



J. P. Neivman, D.D., New York, 
says : 
•'I recommend my friends to sub- 
scribe for the twenty-six books to be 
issued within the coming year.' 

Geo. C. Lorim^r, D.D., Baptist 

Church, Chicago, says : 
" I sincerely hope your endeavors to 
circulate a wholesome and elevating 
class of books will prove suocessful. 
Certainly, clergymen cannot afford that 
it should fail." 
diaries "W. Cxisbing, D.D., First 

M. E. Church, Rochester, N. Y., 

says : 
" I have been deeply interested in 
your effort to make good books as cheap 
as had ones . I mentioned the matter 
from my pulpit. As a result I at once 
got fifty-four subscribers for the full 
set, and more to come." 
J. O. Peck, D.D., First M. E. 

Church, Brooklyn, N Y., says : 
"Your effort is commendable. You 
ought to have the co operation of all 
good men. It is a moral, heroic, and 
humane enterprise." 



168 



THE STANDARD LIBRARY. 

WHAT KEPKESENTATIVE CLERGYMEN SAY 

OF IT. 



Chas. K. Hall, D.D., Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, 

says : 
" Great book monopolies, like huge railroad syndicates, are now the mo* 
narchical relics against which the benevolence and radicalism of the age, 
from different standpoints, are bound to wage war. Each source will have 
its own motives and arguments, but each will resolve to conquer in the long 
run. At one end of the scale we have the Life of Dickens offered for $800, 
that some one wealthy man may enjoy the comfort of his proud privilege 
of wealth in having what no other mortal possesses ; at the other, we hnd 
the volume offered at 10 or 20 cents, which any newsboy or thoughtful 
laborer uses in common with thousands. In the great strife for the great- 
est good of the largest number, put me down as on the side of the last. I 
enclose my subscription order for a year." 

Rev. Chas, W. Cashing, D.D., Eirst M. E. Church, Rochester, 

N. Y., says ; 
"One of the most pernicious sources of evil among our young people 
is the books they read. When 1 can get a young man Interested in substan- 
tial books, I have great hope of him. For this reason 1 have been deeplj 
interested in your effort to make good books as cheap as bad ones. I men- 
tioned the matter from my pulpit. As a result I at once got fifty -four sub- 
scribers for the full set, and more to come." 

J. O. Feck, D.I>., First M. E. Church, Brooklyn, N. T., says: 

"Your effort is commendable. Yon ought to have the co-operation of 
all good men. It is a moral, heroic, and humane enterprise." 

Fres, Mark Hopkins, D.D., of Williams College, says : 

"The attempt of Messrs. Funk and Wagnalls to place good literature 
•within reach of the masses is worthy of all commendation and encourage- 
ment. If the plan oan be successfully carried out, it will be a great boon 
to the country." 

Creo. C. liorrimer, D.D., Baptist Church, Chicago, says: 

" I sincerely hope your endeavors to circulate a wholesome and elevat- 
ing class of books will prove successful. Covtainly, clergymen, and Chris- 
tians generally, cannot afford that it should fail, 'in proof of my personal 
interest in your endeavors, I subscribe for a year." 

J. P. Newman, D.D., New York, says: 

" I have had faith from the beerinning in the mission of Messrs. Funk <fe 
Wagnalls. It required great faith on their part, and their success is in 
proof that all things are possible to him that believeth. They have done 
for the public what long was needed, but what other publishers did not 
Tenture to do." 

Henry J, Van Dyke, D.D., Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., 
says: 
" Good books are great blessings. They drive out darkness by letting 
in light. Your plan ought not to fail for lack of support.-. Pal my name 
on thfi Ust of subscribers."' _ ^*''*:^"^3^^-^ fl 



THE STANDARD SERIES. 

Sest Books ft>r a Trifle. i 

These books are printed in readable type, on fair paper, and are bound in postal 
card manilla. 

These books are printed wholly -without abridgment, except Canon Farrar's "Life 
•f Christ" and his " Life of Paul.'" 



No. Frice. 

1. John Ploughman's Talk. C. H. 
Spurgeon. On Choice of Books. 
Thomas Carlyle." 4to. Both.... $0 12 

2. Manliness of Christ. Thomas 
Ilughee. 4to 10 

3. Essays. Lord Macaulay. 4to... 15 

4. Li^'htof Atiia. Edwin Arnold. 4to. 15 

5. Imitation of Christ. Thomas a 
Kempis. 4to 15 

6-7. Life of Christ. Canon Farrar. 

4to 50 

8. Esfiavs. Thomas Carlyle. 4to.. 20 
9-10. Life and Work of St. P^nl. 

Caiimi Farrar. 4to 2 parts, both 50 
11. Self-Cnl I nrt^. Prof. J. S. Blackie. 

4to. 2 parts, both 10 

12-19. Popular History of England. 

Chas. Knijrht. 4to 2 80 

20-21. Ru>kin'8 Letters to Workmen 

and Laborers. 4to. 2 parts, both 30 

22. Idyls of the King. Alfred Tenny- 
son. 4to 20 

23. Life of Rowland Hill. Rev. V. J. 
Charlesworth. 4r©. 15 

24. Town Geology. Charles Kings- 
ley. 4to 15 

25. Alfred the Great. Thos. Hughes. 

4to 20 

26. Outdoor Life in Europe. Rev. E. 

P. Thwing. 4to 20 

27. Calamities of Authors. I. D'ls- 
raeli. 4to 20 

28. Salon of Madame Necker. Part L 

4lo 15 

29. Ethics of the Dust. JohnRuskin. 

4to 15 

30-31. Memories of My Exile. Louis 

Kossuth. 4to 4® 

32. Mister Horn and His Friends. 

Illustrated. 4to 15 

a3-.34. Orations of Demosthenes. 4to. 40 

35. Frondes Agrestes. John Rus- 

kin. 4lo 15 

36. Joan of Arc. Alphonse de La- 
martine. 4to 10 

37. Thoughts of M. Aurelius Anto- 
ninus. 4to 15 

38. Salon of Madame Necker. Part 

11. 4to 15 

39. TheHfrmiis. Chas.Kingsley. 4to. 15 

40. John Plousrhman's Pictures. C. 

H. Spnrgeon. 4to 15 

41. Pnlpit Table-Talk. Dean Ram- 
say. 4to 10 

42. Bible and Newspaper. C. H. 
Spurgeon. 4to 15 

43. Lacon. Rev. C. C. Colton. 4to. 20 



No. Price. 

44. Goldsmith's Citizen of the World. 

4to $0 20 

45. America Revisited. George Au- 
gustus Sala. 4to 20 

46. Life of C. H. Spurgeon. 8vo.... :i0 

47. John Calvin. M. Guizot. 4to . . 15 
48-49. Dickens' Christmas Books. 

Illustrated. Svo 50 

50. Shairp's Culture and Religion. 8v9. 15 
51-52. Godet's Commentary on Luke. 
Ed.by Dr. John Hall. Svo, a parts, 

both 2 00 

53. Diary of a Minister's Wife. Part 

I. 8vo U5 

54-57. Van Doren's Suggestive Com- 
mentary on Luke. New edition, t 
enlarged. Svo . 3' 00 

58. Diarv of a Minister's Wife. Part 

IL 'Svo 15 

59. The Nutritive Cure. Dr. Robert 
Walter. Svo 15 

60. Sartor Resartus. Thctaias Car- 
lyle. 4to : 25 

61-62. Lothair. Lord Beaconsfield. 

8vo 50 

63. The Persian Queen and Other ^ 
Pictures of Truth. Rev. E. P. 
Thwing. Svo v '^^ 

64. Salon of Madame Necker. Part 

IIL 4to 15 

65-66. The Popular History of Eng- 
lish Bible Translaticm. H. P. Co- 
nant. Svo. Price both parf>«. .. 50 

67. Ingersoll Answered. Joseph Par- 
ker, D.D. Svo 15 

68-69. Studies in Mark. D. C. 

Hughes. Svo, in two parts 60 

TO. Job's Comforters. A Religious 
ijatire. Joseph Parker, D.D. (Lon- 
don.) 12mo 10 

71. TheRevi ers' English. G.Wash- 
inston Moon, F.R.S.L. 12mo.. 20 

72. The Conversion of Children. Rev. 
Edward Payson Hammond. 12mo 30 

73. New Testament Helps. Rev. WA 

F. Crafts. Svo ^ 

74. Opium— England's Coercive Poli- 
cy. Rev. Jno. Liggins. Svo 10 

75. Blood of Jesus. Rev. Wm. A. 
Reid. With Introduction by E. 
P.Hammond. 12mo. 10 

76. Lesson in the Closet for 1883. 
Charles F. Deems. D D. i2mo.. 20 

77-78. Heroes and Hoiidavs. Rev. 

W.F. Crafts. Ifhno. 2pts.,both 30 
79. Reminiscences of Rev. Lyman 

Eeecher, D.D. Svo 10 



FUNK Sl WAGNALLS, 10 and 12 Dey St., NEW YORK. 






Yoig's Aoalytic'al Coscordaiice 

MJEnucjsn TO $2. so, 



Dr. Young cannot endure to have this, the great work of his life, Judged by the un- 
authorized editions with which the American market Is flooded. These editions, he feels, 
do his work and the American public great Injustice. 

That Americans may be able to see the work as printed under his eye and from his own 
plates, he will sell some thousands of copies at 

A Great Pecuniary Sacrifice. 

The sale at the reduced prices will begin March 1, 1883, and will continue until the 
thousands of copies set apart for this sale are exhausted. This is the authorized, latest 
revved and unabridged edition— in every respect the same type, paper, binding, etc., as we 
bave sold at the higher prices. 

It is a burning shame that the great life-work of one of the most eminent scholars, a 
work pronounced in both Europe and America as one of the most laborious and important 
that this century has produced, embracing nearly 1100 large quarto pages, each larger and 
containing more matter than Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, should prove a great 
fioancial loss to Its author ! 

This great work is selling In England at $9, and Is now imported and sold In America 
at $2.50!.° 

Orderg will be filled in the order reeeired np to the time of the exhaustion 
of the stock. 



YouNG'8 Great Concordance. 

DO NOT BE DECEIVED. 

There is bat one authorised and correct edition of Tonne's Concordance eoW 
m America. Every copy of this edition has on the title-page the words 
" Authorized Edition," and at the bottom of the page the imprint 

New York : Fuxk & Wagnalls. Edinburgh : Georgk Adam Young & Compant. 

* All copies, no matter by whom sold, that hare not these words printed on the tltie-page 
are printed on the bungling plates made by the late American, Book Exchange. 

Dr. YoTiNG says : " This unauthorized American edition Is an outrage on the Americim 
public, and on me, containing gross errors." 

Rev. Dr. John Hall says : 

•* Dr. Robert Young's Analytical Concordance is worthy of the lifetime of labor he has 
spent upon it. I deeply regret that his natural and just expectation of some return from 
its sale on this side of the ocean Is not realized; and I hope the sense of lustlce to a 
most painstaking author will lead to the choice by many purchasers of the edition which 
Dr. Young approves— that of Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, with whom Dr. Young co- 
operates In bringing out here the best edition. ,,v^„ „ . , » ,. 

" Nbw Yokk. JOHN HALL." 

Do not be deceived by misrepresentations. Insist that your bookseller furnish you the 
Authorized edition. _ 

REDUCED PRICES: 

1100 quarto pages (each larger than a page In Webster's Unabridged Dictionary), Cloth, f2 M 

Sheep 4 00 

French Im. morocco * 5" 

Sent post-frei. 

FUNK & WAGNALLS, 10 & 12 Dey Street, New York. 



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